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Minority Rights: Between Diversity and Community

ISBN: 978-0-745-62396-2

August 2005

Polity

196 pages

Description
The question of minority rights is one of the great dilemmas of contemporary politics. Increases in the flow of immigrants, migrants and refugees have raised public concerns that greater cultural and ethnic diversity creates instability within nation-states. But does stability really require homogeneity? Or can it be maintained in the presence of different minority groups?


In this path-breaking book, Jackson Preece analyses whether traditional minority rights theory is sufficiently dynamic to inform effective responses to modern challenges. The central premise behind minority rights is that groups recognized and supported by the political community are far less likely to challenge its authority or threaten its territorial integrity. However, as Jackson Preece shows, the potential for collisions of values and interests still exists, and the possibility of a permanent solution to the problem of diversity remains illusive.

Minority Rights will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of political science, international relations, law, and sociology.

About the Author
Jennifer Jackson-Preece is Lecturer in Nationalism in Europe at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science.
Features

  • Offer a concise introduction to this controversial and growing area of study and debate.

  • Explores the ways in which minorities are constructed through religion, race, language and ethnicity.

  • Draws on a range of contemporary examples from across the world.

  • Brings a uniquely rich and varied experience to bear on contemporary debates about how minorities may be accommodated in modern politics.