Multiculturalism is a term much used in everyday political debate. While defended by some, over the past decade it has acquired negative connotations among many politicians, journalists and ordinary citizens. A few years ago, the German chancellor Angela Merkel asserted that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany had ‘utterly failed’. The British prime minister David Cameron has also rejected it, arguing that ‘we need a lot less of the passive tolerance of recent years and much more active, muscular liberalism’.
Cameron’s comment went to the heart of a concern that extends across the left–right political spectrum — that multiculturalism is incompatible with personal freedom. Put simply, liberalism is about freedom and multiculturalism is a threat to liberalism. But there is a problem with this argument: liberals believe in respecting — or at least tolerating — difference and diversity, and so multiculturalism is a product or extension of liberalism.
Your organisation does not have access to this article.
Sign up today to give your students the edge they need to achieve their best grades with subject expertise
Subscribe
