Autor: Matan Oram

Abstract:

Modern liberal Western democracies are currently facing hard times due to changes in the social fabric of these states’ political communities along with economic and cultural pressures. These factors are challenging the conventional perception of the nation-state as the political paradigm for modern democracy. The problematic addressed in this article identifies the intersection at this time of the liberal values and the ‘politics of identity’, which pose serious challenges to the Western democratic world and even possibly signal a ‘paradigm shift’. The problematics of this issue arise from the interrelations between the politics of identity and liberal democracy. As seen through the prism of ‘political liberalism’, the overriding argument becomes that of a search for an ‘appropriate democratic response’ answering the particular sphere of different lifeworld moral values and cultures which face the liberal democratic political culture as laid down by the founding principles of liberalism. The key argument focuses on clarifying a critical distinction in the present understanding of the terms ‘cultural pluralism’ and ‘multiculturalism’ and the avoidance of a tendency of ‘multiculturalism’ to steer an anti-liberal path which would establish a ‘democratic’ inclination toward anti-liberal political cultures and polities.

ISSN: 0870-5283; 2183-461X

DOI: http://doi.org/10.17990/RPF/2016_72_4_1011

Texto Completo: https://www.publicacoesfacfil.pt/product.php?id_product=970

Palavras-Chave: culture,identity,political community,politica