Abstract

Why should the liberal state be concerned about people's cultural differences? How should it respond to these differences? Can culturally differentiated treatment, including the rights and exemptions of minority members, be justified within the liberal framework? And if it can, to whom should this treatment be extended? The Limits of Liberal Multiculturalism discusses cultural accommodation from the perspective of liberal political theory on the one hand, and concrete multicultural policies on the other. It explores some of the weaknesses, but also the successes, of the liberal multicultural project, and develops a new, individuated, yet culturally sensitive approach to cultural diversity. While establishing differentiated rights as legitimate policy options of the liberal state, Vitikainen turns our focus to a further question: How do we reach the actual beneficiaries of such rights? In order to track their targets, differentiated rights must be fairly allocated. This requires extending the scope of the liberal multicultural project, and applying a pluralist, individual-centred approach to allocating differentiated rights in liberal democratic societies.