Will Kymlicka Quotes on Politics
Will Kymlicka's Multicultural Citizenship (1995) and Politics in the Vernacular (2001) gave contemporary liberal political philosophy its most influential treatment of the political claims of national, ethnic, and immigrant minorities. The principal thesis is that the standard liberal framework of universal individual rights — neutral on questions of cultural belonging — is inadequate to the actual situation of minority cultures whose flourishing requires specifically group-differentiated rights (self-government rights for national minorities, polyethnic rights for immigrant groups, special representation rights). The framework integrates with Kymlicka's broader liberal egalitarianism and his Liberalism, Community, and Culture defense against the communitarian critique, and shaped the institutional design of multicultural policy in Canada, Europe, and beyond.
Quotes
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Attributed to Will Kymlicka:
“Cultural membership is one of the conditions of meaningful individual choice.”
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Attributed to Will Kymlicka:
“Multicultural citizenship is not the abandonment of liberalism; it is liberalism's coming to terms with the cultural conditions of its own ideals.”
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Attributed to Will Kymlicka:
“Minority rights are not exceptions to liberal principles; they are their consistent application.”
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Attributed to Will Kymlicka:
“Animals are not just objects of compassion; they are members of mixed political communities.”
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Attributed to Will Kymlicka:
“A liberalism that ignores cultural difference is a liberalism that has not yet thought through its own commitments.”