Minority Rights
Jennifer Jackson Preece
Overview
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.
Table of Contents
- Preface
- I.Understanding the "Problem of Minorities"
- II.Religion
- III.Race
- IV.Language
- V.Ethnicity
- VI.Beyond the "Problem of Minorities"?
Endorsements
“This is an important book. At a time when western societies are becoming increasingly polarised between those who urge the virtues of multiculturalism and those who fear that our values are being undermined and our security threatened by the presence of minorities, we badly need a careful and clear-headed appraisal of minority rights and the dilemmas that they pose. Jennifer Jackson-Preece is to be congratulated providing us with just such an account.”
— James Mayall
“A uniquely useful analysis that will become one of the principal reference points in the field.”
— Marc Weller, Centre of International Studies in the University of Cambridge