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multiculturalism
sociology
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Last Updated: Jun 30, 2025 • Article History

multiculturalism, the view that cultures, races, and ethnicities,

particularly those of minority groups, deserve special
acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant
political culture.

That acknowledgment can take the forms of recognition of

contributions to the cultural life of the political community as a
whole, a demand for special protection under the law for certain
cultural groups, or autonomous rights of governance for certain
cultures; identity politics may be tied to each of these actions.
Multiculturalism is both a response to the fact
of cultural pluralism in modern democracies and a way of
compensating cultural groups for past exclusion, discrimination,
and oppression. Most modern democracies comprise members
with diverse cultural viewpoints, practices, and contributions. Many
minority cultural groups have experienced exclusion or the
denigration of their contributions and identities in the past.
Multiculturalism seeks the inclusion of the views and contributions
of diverse members of society while maintaining respect for their
differences and withholding the demand for their assimilation into
the dominant culture.
Related Topics:

ideology

interest group

minority

identity politics

Multiculturalism as a challenge to traditional liberalism

Multiculturalism stands as a challenge to liberal democracy. In

liberal democracies, all citizens should be treated equally under the
law by abstracting the common identity of “citizen” from the real
social, cultural, political, and economic positions and identities of
real members of society. That leads to a tendency to homogenize
the collective of citizens and assume a common political
culture that all participate in. However, that abstract view ignores
other politically salient features of the identities of political
subjects that exceed the category of citizen, such as race, religion,
class, and sex. Although claiming the formal equality of citizens, the
liberal democratic view tends to underemphasize ways in which
citizens are not in fact equal in society. Rather than embracing the
traditional liberal image of the melting pot into which people of
different cultures are assimilated into a unified national culture,
multiculturalism generally holds the image of a tossed salad to be
more appropriate. Although being an integral and recognizable part
of the whole, diverse members of society can maintain their
particular identities while residing in the collective.

Some more radical multicultural theorists have claimed that some

cultural groups need more than recognition to ensure
the integrity and maintenance of their distinct identities and
contributions. In addition to individual equal rights, some have
advocated for special group rights and autonomous governance for
certain cultural groups. Because the continued existence of
protected minority cultures ultimately contributes to the good of all
and the enrichment of the dominant culture, those theorists have
argued that the preserving of cultures that cannot withstand the
pressures to assimilate into a dominant culture can be given
preference over the usual norm of equal rights for all.
Multiculturalism’s impact on education

Some examples of how multiculturalism has affected the social and

political spheres are found in revisions of curricula, particularly
in Europe and North America, and the expansion of the Western
literary and other canons that began during the last quarter of the
20th century. Curricula from the elementary to the university levels
were revised and expanded to include the contributions of minority
and neglected cultural groups. That revision was designed to
correct what is perceived to be a falsely Eurocentric perspective
that overemphasizes the contributions of white European colonial
powers and underemphasizes the contributions made
by indigenous people and people of colour. In addition to that
correction, the contributions that cultural groups have made in a
variety of fields have been added to curricula to give special
recognition for contributions that were previously ignored. The
establishment of African American History Month, National
Hispanic Heritage Month, and Asian American and Pacific Islander
Heritage Month in the United States is an example of the
movement. The addition of works by members of minority cultural
groups to the canons of literary, historical, philosophical, and
artistic works further reflects the desire to recognize and include
multicultural contributions to the broader culture as a whole.
Challenges to multiculturalism
There are two primary objections to multiculturalism. One is that
multiculturalism privileges the good of certain groups over
the common good, thereby potentially eroding the common good in
favour of a minority interest. National unity could become
impossible if people see themselves as members of ethnic or racial
groups rather than as citizens of a common country. The second is
that multiculturalism undermines the notion of equal individual
rights, thereby weakening the political value of equal treatment.
Equal individual rights could be set aside or deprecated in favour of
rights that are possessed by the group.

Multiculturalism raises other questions. There is the question of

which cultures will be recognized. Some theorists have worried
that multiculturalism can lead to a competition between cultural
groups all vying for recognition and that this will further reinforce
the dominance of the dominant culture. Such competition could
even lead to a reaction in which the dominant culture sees itself as
a beleaguered group in need of recognition and protection.
Further, the focus on cultural group identity may reduce the
capacity for coalitional political movements that might develop
across differences. Some Marxist and feminist theorists have
expressed worry about the dilution of other important differences
shared by members of a society that do not necessarily entail a
shared culture, such as class and sex, and the resulting neglect of
policies that would minimize economic and gender inequalities. A
related concern is that actions that celebrate
cultural pluralism would be taken because of their popularity but
that actions that redress past discrimination would not be taken
because of their threat to the dominant group’s status.
Multicultural politics

Multiculturalism is closely associated with identity politics, or

political and social movements that have group identity as the basis
of their formation and the focus of their political action. Those
movements attempt to further the interests of their group members
and force issues important to their group members into the public
sphere. However, in contrast to multiculturalism, identity politics is
based on the shared identity of participants rather than on a
specifically shared culture. However, both identity politics and
multiculturalism often have in common the demand for recognition
and redress for past inequities.

Multiculturalism raises important questions for citizens, public

administrators, and political leaders about balancing recognition
for groups with the interests of the entire society. By asking for
recognition of and respect for cultural differences, multiculturalism
provides one possible response to the question of how to increase
the participation of previously oppressed groups.
Jennifer L. EaganThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica