Liberal Principles and Minority Rights Essay

bragging(a) Principles and Minority Rights BY shax0521 We pull round in a world with differences, biases and hindrances we tend to take into enumerate to be qualified to cope up with the changes happening around us. These differences could be between races,religion, culture, language, etc. But within a country, these differences in any case exist. close to countries are composed of diversed culture that divides the club to the bulk and the minorities that establishes ethnical differences link up problems. It is often heard that minorities are deprived from genuine freedom and the mass avails most of the better previleges that could e given.Minorities are often Judged by polar steoreotypes and prejudices that establishes conflict between the congregations. The briny point of Prof. Hans Ingvar Roth, head of the sweden research police squad of the University of Lund in his article Liberal Principles and Minority rights, nonage groups particularly in a slack antiauthorita rian cabaret should be able to swap with the existing problems confronting their existence and culture in relation to the innocentist tenets through group-targeted measures.These group-targeted measures will be further explained throughout the article critique. The purpose of this subject is to give a brief summary of Roths article Liberal Principles and Minority Rights, what are the big principles of a liberal antiauthoritarian rules of order how it affects the condition of the minorities and my point of view as a reader. It will also tackle the different features of a liberal confederacy, the problems encountered by minorities and the possible rootage to the problems. In opposite words, the life of the minorities in a liberal democratic society. harmonise to Roth, inequalities in modern western societies are mettled by the inorities particularly ethnic, racial and religious which sometimes seen to result to diversity. The minorities are confronted by social, politic al and cultural inequalities which were percieved to be the consequences as a memberofa liberal democratic society. Moreover, the bulk enjoys the benefits and priveleges that were given by the society. In relation to this, to know the lawsuit why these inequalities occur, we must know the grass roots of this condition. Roth give tongue to in his article his definition ofa liberal democratic society. jibe to him, a liberal democratic society is charcterized by the certain institutions or norms that are seen among umteen of its citizens as essential guidelines for the organization of society. A liberal democratic society has its liberal principles namely, majoritarian democracy, free moblity, foodstuff economy, meritocracy and disinterest. The number one principle is the majoritarian democracy or the rule of many . This concept of democracy implies disadvantages to the minorities beca lend oneself literally, it shows how minorities are outnumbered by the bulk in foothold of the ir cultural survival.As stated in the article, this subject of democracy eat up serious consequences for defenseless minorities. Further more than, an new(prenominal) liberal principle which is a burden to minorities is free mobility where battalion get to move freely without any intent hindrances but it has its limit in reality. Roth expounded it as the specimen of open borders for refugees from non- european countries in contrast to the migration policies implemented on diverse principle is the easy access of mass population into minority territories that could hazard the cultural survivability of the latter which is also dependent upon its eography.Moreover, the market economy as a principle which assumes freedom of choice that is considered to be the prevailing mystify for arranging economic activities systems in liberal societies. Roth added that jibe to many of his critics, the market economy could triplet the majority to cultural supremacy over the minorities where the author has more access to authorised resources that could affect the cultural life of a country. It is considered to be the most efficient among other economic systems. Another liberal principle is meritocracy.According to Roth, merit should administer the appropriation of employment and places in higher education. This implies that the majority will dominate the labour-market of the society and compensatetually receive the highest ranks in offices. This would result to the alienation of the minorities in any encounter of some(prenominal) forms of higher education because the majority gets the best priveleges they could have in the society. In addition, Roth cited another principle which is neutrality or even-handedness.This occurs when the government activity doesnt interfere with certain policy decisions uided by religious views or substantial philiosophies of life and this good-hearted of action implies contradiction to relgious minorities and securalism in some manne r influence the society. The abovementioned principles in any circumstances could stand in conflict with one another. As we have tackled the 5 principles of a liberal democratic society, it is also important to know some features of this kind of society which could have significant consequences on the cultural standing of different minorities in the society.The first feature is lingua franca which refers to having a common language in the society for he people have one language they could use to communicate with each other. Roth stated in his article that the language is an important element for the cultural identicalness of a group. Eventually, the language of the majority will be the lingua franca imputable to its long register in the country and the minorities must accept it and use to be able to communicate with others.However, this doesnt mean that the languages from the minorities cannot be recognized as official languages in significant bailiwick of society such(prenominal ) as education or law. Another feature of a liberal democratic society is nation building. Roth referred it as the creation of various(a) institutions, traditions and orbital cavitys of society in which it will be affected by the long history of the majority group. In this case, it stresses that even without ethnic or cultural patriotism the majority culture is advantageous because of its historical standing in the society.According to Roth, cultural preservation of minority groups depend on the members itself. They should have the best interest in maintaining and preserving their culture. A part from Roths article tackled closely the shared values in the ulticultural debate for minority rights where possessing a substantial cultural belonging could be valuable in a way that it is an important condition to an individual well being or it could be a crucial part of a ones ain identity or as a framework adapting the majoritys culture and integration or affiliate with the majority on the other side.However, they have one common view that minority groups should not face anu unfair or excessive burdens in maintaining their cultures. Furthermore, if a minority group had encountered am intense discrimination from the other groups in he society, they should even up for the serious cultural disadvantage that the minority group faces. In other words, cultural diversity should be reagarded as a valuable aim for the whole society and a shared public responsibility to check the preservation of the minority culture.However, if a certain minority in inquire have encountered no grim history of discrimination, and its cultural changes was payable to free change of its own members, it conditions become more unclear. The members itself should pay the price of maintaining or preserving their culture given hat they have been attracted to the majority culture. In addition, the majority is not coerced to share a costs of preserving that particular minority. As discussed ea rlier, in that location are ethnic and religious minorities in a society and their stance could be less favourable in certain conditions.Roth empha surfaced in his article that cultural influence by the majority usually occurs to the minorities that live in so-called open agricultural territories, small in size and the history of discrimination. Furthermore, it was stressed that shared language, religion and a istory of discrimination or an idea of geographical location make the minorit group maintain their culture. at that place are minority groups that prefer to attain independence and others to lower their claims and quite strive for various forms of cultural autonomy.In the entire article, the two main problems of minorities in relation to the liberal principles are cultural preservation and problems of integration. According to him, problems of preservation arise when liberal principles such as free mobility and the s of a market economy may threaten a tralatitious form o f community life. Due to the dominance of the majority in footing of size, resources and historical standing, these principles work to their cultural advantage. Furthermore, the practice of having a lingua franca gives more disadvantage to the minorities in terms of preservation of their own language.The abovementioned problems has its group-targeted measures so that the minority culture will survive. These are metaphors the fence in, the ladder, the springboard and the plane. With these meaures, there could be a continous existence of minority groups in liberal democratic societies. Through the fence it ould take form of exceptions from laws that burden traditional cultural practices or even property rights that would prevent majority population from buying lands from the minority territories.In addition, Roth used the cultural autonomy with regards to certain forms of legislation such as family as an example of a fence which protects the minority from being influenced by the fa mily customs of the majority. Another measure is the ladder wherein group representation should be practiced by religious and ethnic groups in order to have a level of representation in the society. This metaphor can correct and attenuate unfair thresholds or hindrances such as blind spots, various forms of animosity, stereotypes and nepotism.To be able to gain entrance in the main sphere of society in spite of the diminish this hindrances in the remote future. The first measure or mode is called the springboard that would present opportunities to minorities such as labour market and higher education in instances that they face discrimination and prJudices in the society. According to Roth, the springboard is not enough for minorities to be able to enter to such society that is hy the plane was created. It is considered to be the supplementary method of the springboard.It aims to alter engrained and stubborn attitudes and habits among the majority population through information ca mpaigns and cross-cultural meeting places. From what I understand in the Roths article, inequalities of minorities in the society are caused by the liberal principles. I agree on it collectable to the different situations presented in the article. These principles namely majoritarian democracy, free mobility, meritocracy, market economy and neutrality are advantageous to the ajority population and affect the minoritys cultural preservation.The articles premises are still valid according to the current situations in most western countries. His interpretation of the evidences presented were likely to lead us to the same conclusion that the liberal principles should be improved quite an than to replace them with something different in order to solve such inequalities in such society. His arguments regarding the disadvantages of the minorities in the society such as the lingua franca where the majoritys language will be the official language of the ociety and meritocracy where the maj ority gets the highest ranks in the offices had the biggest impact to me which I agree on.If we compare it to the philippines, a non- liberal democratic country but compose of a majority and minorities, due to the geographical boundary and size of population of christians with tagalog as their language is considered to be the official language of the country, officially called as Filipino and in terms of meritocracy, the muslims as a minority experience biases regarding employment in government and other fields of offices because of different stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination.