PHL 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 18: Will Kymlicka, Polyethnicity, Liberal Democracy
Document Summary
The religious wars in europe were resolved by separating the state from the church, and organizing the state around a set of human rights and applied to individuals. Kymlicka, however, thinks that with respect to questions concerning minority groups in modern societies human rights cannot be of much help. Kymlicka believes that to solve this problem we need to supplement traditional human rights with a theory of minority rights. In chapter ii he defines nation as a historical community, more or less institutionally complete, occupying a given territory or homeland, sharing a distinct language and culture. he uses culture as synonymous with a nation or a people. He wants to distinguish 2 categories of national minority and ethnic minority from one another, and distinguishes both from social movements . Based in this distinction, all liberal democracies are either multinational or polyethnic, or both.