Chandran Kukathas: Are there any Cultural Rights?

“In this essay, I shall argue that while we are right to be concerned about the cultural health of minority communities, this gives us insufficient reason to abandon, modify, or reinterpret liberalism. Far from being indifferent to the claims of minorities, liberalism puts concern for minorities at the forefront. Its very emphasis on individual rights or individual liberty bespeaks not hostility to the interests of communities but wariness of the power of the majority over minorities. There is thus no need to look for alternatives to liberalism or to jettison the individualism that lies at its heart. We need, rather, to reassert the fundamental importance of individual liberty or individual rights and question the idea that cultural minorities have collective right.”

The full paper can be found here.