The ties that blind us - the hidden assumptions in the ‘new progressive’s dilemma’: Comment on Will Kymlicka’s article: “Solidarity in Diverse Societies”

© ( y c While remaining firmly anchored in political theory, Will Kymlicka has increasingly taken on questions in empirical political science, especially the study of ‘trust’ and ‘social solidarity’ in multicultural societies, and how these may relate to prevailing social welfare regimes. These are the ties that bind us. Where previously such work has focused on whether public policies of multiculturalism had ‘misdiagnosed’, ‘crowded out’ or ‘corroded support’ necessary for social solidarity (e.g., Banting & Kymlicka, 2006), in the present intervention he widens the aperture to take in the ‘new progressive’s dilemma’ more broadly. That is, the alleged tension between ethnic diversity per se and the social solidarity required for redistributive public policy. In typically eloquent, considered and stimulating fashion, the current intervention offers a wide-ranging account of the issues at stake. I do not think that his core argument needs to be restated here, other than to observe that its normative thrust rests on the ‘elective affinities’ view of the relationship between social justice and territorialised social formations. What characterises Kymlicka as a multiculturalist is his desire to pluralise the terms of membership therein. Be it national identity, citizenship or other forms of common membership, the multiculturalist challenge is to redress what Iris Marian Young (1990, p. 165) has termed ‘coming to the game after it is already begun, after the rules and standards have been set, and having to prove oneself accordingly’. The argument Kymlicka’s thesis supports however is that since an alternative neutral state organised by liberal principles alone is impossible, the best means of achieving liberal goals – including personal liberties, autonomy, freedom for cultural diversity, liberal constitutionalism and most notably for our discussion the welfare state – is through the stable basis of an inclusive nation or a nation-state or a multi-nation. This is a view shared by a cluster of scholars whose works bear a family resemblance and can be described – even while they may deem the framing a little clumsy – as ‘liberal nationalism’ (cf Miller, 1995; Mason, 2000). In Kymlicka’s own terms (2015, p. 3):