Equal Recognition

Abstract

This chapter explores the question of under what conditions, if any, are there reasons for thinking that people have a complaint based on justice about the decline of the minority culture? More specifically: under what conditions can people justifiably make such a complaint while adopting a broadly liberal account of what justice is? It examines the implications of neutrality of treatment for the justification of minority cultural rights. It distinguishes between procedural and nonprocedural accounts of cultural justice and, within the former category, between “basic” and “full” liberal proceduralism. The major argument is that neutrality of treatment mandates the latter form of proceduralism, which incorporates a concern for what referred to as “equal recognition.” The second half of the chapter considers and responds to several objections to this defense of cultural rights.