A Defence of Individual Autonomy in a Multination Liberal State

A Defence of Individual Autonomy in a Multination Liberal State

Liberalism is committed to protecting the freedom to choose, question and revise one’s own conception of the good life. For this reason, liberalism defends (among many other things) freedom of conscience, expression and association, as well as mandatory, universal education. In Multicultural Citizenship, Will Kymlicka argues that the state is also obligated to ensure that the lifestyle options which are made available to an individual so that she can choose, question and revise her own conception of the good life, are meaningful to her by being understood by her in relation to her own "societal culture". He concludes, therefore, that in a multination liberal state, self-government rights should be granted to national minorities in order to guarantee that their members will have access to their own societal culture. However, in the case of an illiberal national minority, granting them the rights necessary to preserve their own societal culture will result in violations of the individual rights of their members. This is a serious problem for liberalism. Kymlicka proposes that we must accept such violations because the liberal state is not entitled to impose liberal values and practices on to a national minority. He suggests that the state should promote the voluntary liberalisation of the illiberal culture from within, and is only justified in using force in order to prevent severe violations of individual rights. In this paper I will argue that Kymlicka’s approach is lacking in some areas. I will argue that a multination liberal state should not grant self-government rights to a previously non-self-governing illiberal national minority unless the individual r...

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...ial obligation, which does not apply to foreign nations, to take further steps, as outlined above, to their neighbouring fellow human beings.

Endnotes

1 Will Kymlicka (1995), Multicultural Citizenship, (Clarendon Press, Oxford). p.76

2 Ibid., p.90

3 Avishai Margalit and Joseph Raz (1990), ‘National Self-Determination’, Jounal of

Philosophy, 87/9: 439-61. p.447-9

4 Supra, note 1, p.89

5 Ibid., p.83

6 Ronald Dworkin (1985), A Matter of Principle, (Harvard University Press, London).

p.231

7 Supra, note 1, p.78

8 Ibid., p.168

9 Ibid., p.169

Bibliography

Ronald Dworkin (1985), A Matter of Principle, (Harvard University Press, London).

Will Kymlicka (1995), Multicultural Citizenship, (Clarendon Press, Oxford).

Avishai Margalit and Joseph Raz (1990), ‘National Self-Determination’, Jounal of Philosophy, 87/9: 439-61.