Cultural liberty in today’s diverse world

Based on “Overview”, in Human Development Report 2004: Cultural Diversity in Today’s Diverse World, UNDP, 2004, p.1-12

Overviewa) Introductionb) Mythsc) Cultural liberty and human developmentd) Multicultural Policiese) Cultural Dominationf) Globalizationg) Conclusion

(a) Introduction

• I am my language, my symbols, my beliefs• I am. • We are.

Handprints across time, cultures and continents

Managing Cultural Diversity

• One of the central challenges of our time• Recognizing and accommodating diverse

ethnicities, religions, languages and values is an inescapable feature of politics in the 21st century

Political leaders and political theorists

• Argued against explicit recognition of cultural identities – ethnic, religious, linguistic, racial

• As a result cultural identities suppressed, sometimes brutally as state policy

• Religious persecutions and ethnic cleansing occurs

• Everyday exclusion and economic, social and political discrimination happens

The rise of identity politics

• Old grievances along ethnic, religious, racial and cultural lines re-emerging

• People demanding acknowledgement, appreciation and accommodation by the wider society and social justice

• Political claims and demands from individual, communities, and countries feeling that local cultures are being swept away

Why?• Not isolated• Part of a historic process of social change, struggles for

cultural freedom and advances of human freedoms and democracy

• Propelled and shaped by the spread of democracy and globalization

Cultural Liberty• Ability to choose one’s identity – who one is• A vital part of human development• Freedom to practice their religion openly• To speak their language• To celebrate their ethnic or religious heritage• A simple idea and profoundly challenging

Struggles over cultural identity• One of the greatest sources of instability within states

and between them• Polarize people and groups into the “us” and “them”

mentality• Threaten peace, development and human freedoms• Lead to regressive and xenophobic policies retarding

human development• Encourage conservatism and rejection of change

Managing diversity and respecting cultural identities

• Not just challenges for a few “multi-ethnic” states but for every nation

• No country is entirely homogenous• The world nearly 200 countries contained some 5,000

ethnic groups• Two-thirds have at least one substantially minority – an

ethnic or religious group – that makes up at least 10% of the population

Cultural Diversity• Here to stay – and to grow• States need to forge national unity amid this diversity• Cannot be ignored by any state or the international

community• Confrontations over culture and identity likely to grow

(b) Myths

Myths

• Allowing diversity to flourish can result in fragmentation, weaken the state, lead to conflict and retard development

• Best approach is to assimilate around a single national standard

Myth 1: Trade-off between recognizing diversity and unifying the state

• No need to choose between state unity and recognizing cultural difference

• Individuals can and do have multiple identities that are complementary – ethnicity, language, religion, race and citizenship

• For e.g., being French (citizenship), gender (female), race (West African origin), language (being fluent in Thai, French, Chinese and English), politics (left-wing views) and religion (Buddhist)

“Nation building”• Dominant objective of the 20th century• Aimed at building culturally homogenous states with

singular identities• Attempts either to exterminate cultural groups or wish

them away faced stubborn resistance• Better to accommodate cultural groups rather than

eliminate them or to pretend they do not exist

Choice between national unity and cultural diversity

• Need not be made• No trade-off• Diverse cultures can be accommodated• Example, being both Flemish or Walloon in Belgium

Myth 2: Trade-off between respecting diversity and sustaining peace

• Little empirical evidence that culture differences and clashes over values are causes of violent conflicts

• Culture identity is not a cause but a driver for political mobilization

• But identity politics need to be managed so that they do not turn violent

Myth 3: Trade-off between recognizing cultural diversity and other human development priorities such as progress in

development, democracy and human rights

• No• Cultural liberty is expanding individual choices, not about

preserving values and practices as an end in itself with blind tradition to tradition

• Cultural liberty is the capability of people to live and be what they choose

• Cultural liberty not the same as “culture”, “tradition”, and “authenticity”

• There need not be any trade-off between respect for cultural differences and human rights and development

• Process of development involves active participation of people in fighting for human rights and shifts in values

Myth 4: Trade-off between respecting diversity and promoting development

• No evidence of clear evidence, good or bad, between cultural diversity and development

• Some argue that diversity has been an obstacle to development

• Many diverse societies have low levels of income and human development, but there is no evidence that this is related to cultural diversity

• Diversity has been a source poor performance in Africa, but this is related to political decision-making based on ethnic rather than national interests, not diversity itself

• Multi-ethnic countries which are spectacularly successful – Malaysia, Mauritius

Myth 5: Trade-off between accommodating certain values and promoting development and democracy

• No evidence of relationship between culture and economic progress and democracy

• Cultural determinism – a group’s culture explains economic performance and the the advance of democracy – as an obstacle or a facilitator has enormous intuitive appeal

• Many theories of cultural determinism advanced –starting with Max Webers’s Protestant ethics for capitalism; that Confucian values retard growth;the failure of democratization in the non-Western world because of “authoritarian values”

“Clash of civilization”• A new wave of cultural determinism• Argument that non-Western states with more

authoritarian values threaten the future of democratic and tolerant Western states

• Exaggerates the differences between “civilization” groups and ignores the similarities among them

• The West has no monopoly on democracy or tolerance• No unique line of historical division between a tolerant

and democratic West and the despotic East

Basic problem with these theories

• The underlying assumption that culture is relatively fixed and unchanging, and neatly dividing the world into “civilization” or “cultures”

• Ignores the fact that cultures changed and are rarely homogeneous

• Have dangerous policy implications – support nationalistic policies that denigrates or oppress “inferior” cultures, feeding tensions within and between nations

(c) Cultural liberty and human development

Cultural liberty is a human right and an important aspect

of human development -

And thus worthy of state attention and

action

Human Development

• More than health education, a decent standard of living and political freedom

• People’s cultural identity must be recognized and accommodated by the states

• People must be free to express these identities without being discriminated

Advance of cultural liberty• Must be a central aspect of human development• Going beyond social, political and economic

opportunities• Allow people to choose their identities and to lead the

lives they value without being excluded from other choices, such as health, education or job opportunities

Cultural Exclusion• Two forms1. Living mode exclusion2. Participation exclusion• About 900 million people worldwide subject to some

form of either living mode or participation exclusion –around one in every seven people

• The two forms do not always overlap, for e.g. people of Chinese origin in South East Asia, economically dominant but culturally excluded

1. Living mode exclusion• Denies recognition and accommodation of a life style• Examples – religious oppression or the insistence that

immigrants drop their cultural practices and languages • Often overlaps with social, economic and political

exclusion through discrimination and disadvantages• Reinforces exclusion from other opportunities – Kurds in

Turkey and the indigenous people of Guatemala excluded from political participation because of their languages

2. Participation exclusion

• People discriminated against or suffer disadvantages in social, economic and political opportunities because of their cultural identity

(d) Multicultural Policies

Multicultural policy approach• Respecting diversity and building more inclusive

societies that explicitly recognize cultural differences• Not just desirable but also viable and necessary• A way to build diverse and unified states

Developing multicultural policies to address cultural exclusion

• Not always easy• Cultural liberty will not just happen• Should be a core concern of governments• Guaranteeing civil and political rights such as

freedom of worship, speech and association is not enough to give them the ability to practice their religion, speak their language and be free of discrimination in employment, schooling and other types of exclusion

Multicultural Policies• Cultural liberty will not just happen• Governments need to foster them even if there is no

explicit policies of persecution or discrimination• States must recognize cultural differences in their

constitutions, laws and institutions• Must ensure that interests of minorities, or historically

marginalized majorities are not ignored or overridden by the majority or by dominant groups

• Should focus on five central policy areas

(1) Policies for ensuring political participation

• A “multicultural” conception of democracy needed, beyond democratization

• Power sharing arrangements between culturally diverse groups are critical

• Successful examples in New Zealand for Maoris, reserved seats and quotas for scheduled tribes and castes and ethnic minorities in Croatia

• Federal arrangements an important for power sharing

(2) Policies for ensuring religious freedom

• Minorities suffer various forms of exclusion, due to explicit suppression of religious freedom or discrimination

• Some exclusion is less direct and often unintended• Religious minorities often contest the exclusions• From the human development perspective, states must

provide reasonable accommodation of religious practices, where all religions have the same relation to the state and the state protects human rights

(3) Policies for legal pluralism• Recognizing the role of judicial norms and institutions of

the communities in different ways• Conflicts can arise and societies must address real

trade-offs• Does not require wholesale adoption of all traditional

practices• Guatemala, India, and South Africa developing

approaches to legal pluralism

(4) Language Policies• Most contested issue• Monolingual policy, the choice of a official language – the most

frequent source of widespread exclusion• Recognizing a language is not just the use of the language, but

symbolizes respect for the people, culture and full inclusion insociety

• States can be blind to religion but cannot be mute to language• Many states resist recognizing multiple languages even when they

accept civil and political freedom• Many countries accommodate unity and diversity by adopting a

unifying national language as well as local languages – recognizing the language of past colonial administration (English or French), the most widely used local language and a mother tongue at local levels

(5) Socio-economic Policies• Critical in addressing economic and social inequalities• Targeting basic services and readdressing bias in public

spending helps but not enough• Multicultural policies that recognize differences between

groups are needed• Affirmative action can reduce inequalities between

groups• Complex but can work

(e) Cultural Domination

Cultural Domination• Takes different forms: political parties, militias, violent groups,

international networks and even the state• Underlying causes include manipulative leadership, poverty and

inequality, weak or ineffectual states, outside political interventions and linkages with the diaspora

• Assert cultural superiority and intolerance, targeting freedom and diversity

• States often use repressive and undemocratic methods to confront it but at high costs

• Democratic accommodation works; intolerance is a real challenge for cultural liberty and legitimate means must be used

(f) Globalization

Globalization• Expanding cultural freedom presents new challenges

and dilemmas• Policies need to explicitly recognize and respect cultural

differences• Also need to address imbalances in economic and

political power• An approach that respects and promotes diversity while

keeping countries open to global flows of capital, goods and people is advocated

• Attention to be paid in three hotly contested areas

(a) Indigenous people, extractive industries and traditional knowledge

• Indigenous people’s rights over knowledge and land must be recognized

• Indigenous groups’ voices must be heard• Strategies for sharing benefits must be

developed• Successful initiatives undertaken in Peru, Papua

New Guinea, North America, Australia, Bangladesh, Lao PDR, South Africa, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Viet Nan and Canada

• International action required

(b) Cultural goods• Mainly cinema and audiovisual products)• Should they be protected in international trade to protect

cultural diversity in the world?• Two principles are critical: recognize the role of cultural

goods in nurturing creativity and diversity and recognize the disadvantage of small film and audiovisual industries in the global markets

• To promote cultural diversity cultural industries should be supported

• Successful examples can be seen in Argentina, Brazil, Egypt, France and Hungary

(C) Immigration• Three critical principles: respect diversity, recognize multiple

identities and build common bonds of belonging to the local community

• Two approaches dominate state policies – (1) differentialism(migrants keep their identities but not integrate into the rest of the society) (2) assimilation (without the choice of keeping the oldidentity)

• New approaches of multiculturalism introduced – promoting tolerance and cultural understanding, but also accommodating religious practice, dress and other aspects of everyday life; acknowledging that immigrants are voiceless and insecure; support for integration

• Countries expanding the rights of civic participation to non-citizenship – “denizenship” (Belgium, Sweden), more than 30 countries acceot dual citizenship

(g) Conclusion

Expanding Cultural Freedoms• An important goal in human development, needing

urgent attention in the 21st century• All people want to be free to be who they are and to

express their identity• In the era of globalization, there must be greater respect

for diversity and stronger commitment to unity