The Appeal of Diversity: Problems and Possibilities
Journal Title: The Journal of Human Rights - Year 2007, Vol 1, Issue 2
Abstract
The desirability of diversity is often mentioned, especially in liberal political philosophy. Diversity across a range of areas such as ethnicity and religion is regarded as adding to the flavour of democracy and enriching the nature of society. Opposed to this, however, is the desire of many in the state to restrict membership to those who are close to the majority population, and there are often rules to establish this sort of homogeneity. Sometimes the arguments for these restrictions on diversity are economic, sometimes they are based on security, and these arguments are clearly reasonable and have to be responded to by anyone in favour of increasing diversity. Here the discussion will be centred around not these pragmatic considerations but the idea that there is something to be said for preserving a degree of uniformity in the population of a country or region. چکیده تنوع درمجموعه‌‌ای از عرصه‌ها، همچون عرصة قومیت و دین، چاشنی دموکراسی و مایة غنای ماهیت جامعه تلقی می‌شود. اما بسیاری از دولتمردان تمایل دارند که اعضای دولت را به کسانی محدود سازند که به اکثریت نزدیک‌اند؛ و غالباً قوانینی هم برای تثبیت این همگونی وجود دارد. دلایل این‌گونه محدودیت‌ها در باب تنوع، گاه اقتصادی، و گاه مبتنی بر امنیت‌اند. این دلایل به طور آشکار منطقی‌‌اند و طرفدار افزایش تنوع باید نسبت به آنها پاسخ‌گو باشد. درمقالة حاضر، نه بر ملاحظات عملی، بلکه بر این ایده متمرکز خواهم شد که برای حفظ میزانی از هم‌شکلی در جمعیت یک کشور یا منطقه، لازم است چیزی برای مطرح کردن وجود داشته باشد. در اینجا می‌توان مطلب را با نظریة عصبیت ابن‌خلدون که بیانگر اهمیت میزانی از انسجام میان اعضای جامعه است، و نیز با این تصور آغاز کنیم که یقیناً او این ضرورت را ابراز می‌دارد تا انسجام مطلوب بر پایة چیزی حاصل آید که شهروندان در آن احساس مشارکت عمومی داشته باشند. پس می‌توان گفت که اگر تنوع به ضعف عصبیت منجر شود، نامطلوب است.
Authors and Affiliations
Oliver Leaman
Keywords
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