Multiculturalism and Liberalism in Liberal Democracies - Essay Example

“.multiculturalism should be seen as the next episode in the continuing story of liberalism and nationalism and in fact constitutes an attempt to separate politics and culture by finally divorcing the pair” (Levey 64). A liberal democracy deals with the recommendation and aggregation of preferences defined prior to political intervention (Dryzek 10). In other words, liberal democracies are a representation of different groups and units in a given economy and are steeped in the fundamental equality of human beings and protection of civil liberties on a collective level (Scheurman 59).

This shows that multiculturalism is seen as an essential component of nations and communities in liberal democracies. This paper examines multiculturalism and liberalism as a component of liberal democratic states. To this end, the paper will examine the limits and promises of multiculturalism and liberalism in diversifying liberal democracies. Basically, liberal democracy is a nation that accepts that people have inalienable rights that must be respected and honored. A nation like the United States of America was formulated on the rights of people to equality and justice.

And through the United Nations, countries around the world recognize and accept the need to honor the rights of people in all situations and conditions. In that sense, it can be said that a single value system or a monocultural system that is based on restrictions and limits that affect the liberal rights of a nation is against the essence of democracy in a liberal nation (Levey 51). This is because a single value-based system is one that expects everyone to conform to a given set of values and rules.

This comes with the inherent challenge of getting people to compromise certain aspects of their human rights in order to conform with the social expectation. Due to this, the monocultural system can be seen to have serious challenges that can stand 

in the way of people's rights to a meaningful life based on their unique social and cultural preferences.

            Another positive thing that multiculturalism and liberalism contribute to liberal democracy is that it allows for the efficient questioning of cultures and structures in the society (Levey 51). This is because multiculturalism and liberalism allow different social groups and social systems to coexist side-by-side. This allows the different social groups to exist and as more and more people from diverse backgrounds live together, there is the opportunity for dynamism to grow and thrive in society. The Chinese leader, Mao Zedong is cited as saying that a nation develops better if different people with different people interact with each other. This means that the interaction of different cultural and social groups allows people to question trends and systems. This helps a liberal democratic society to improve at a faster rate. This is because the debates and frictions between the different cultural and social groupings lead to a trend whereby good social activities are encouraged whilst bad ones are discouraged. With time, the good things in each of the social groups grow and the bad things disappear. This leads to some kind of positive evolution which allows a liberal democracy to grow and enhance good social trends and do away with negative ones.

            The degree of multiculturalism and liberalism gives a good accounting of the kind of democracy that exists in a given nation. This is because democracy is based on the principle of individual autonomy and personal choice. If a society maintains multicultural and liberal structures, it can be said to be a true democracy whilst a nation without such options can be said to be a weak democracy.

Conclusion

One culture against human rights

different cultures promote questioning.