National Identity and Cultural Rights

This book is an attempt to explain and assess the liberal nationalist view on the problems of the legitimacy of nationalism and cultural rights. I want to look at some normative theories over the past fifteen years that evaluate nationalism according to the liberal principles. By considering the alleged conflict between the minority nation-building and the majority nation-building in multination countries, I will examine two models for resolving this conflict: Multinational Federalism and Transnational Federalism . I will argue that, though most liberal nationalists support the former model, they fail to provide a convincing normative ground for justifying Multinational Federalism and stopping national minorities from secession. The liberal nationalists' arguments for necessity of nationalism, ironically, undermine their own claim about normative importance of Multinational Federalism in comparison to Transnational Federalism. This is what I call the paradox of liberal nationalism .

Autorentext

Omid Hejazi is a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Queen's University, Canada. His main philosophical interests lie in contemporary political philosophy. In particular his PhD research focuses on contemporary liberal theories of multiculturalism and national minority rights.