Minorities’ Participation in Multicultural Societies

Abstract

Multicultural societies are characterized by people of different races, ethnicities, and nationalities living together in the same community. Multiculturalism views that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of minority groups, deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture. Most modern democracies comprise members with diverse cultural viewpoints, practices, and contributions. Many minority cultural groups have experienced exclusion or the denigration of their contributions and identities in the past. Multiculturalism seeks the inclusion of the views and contributions of diverse members of society while maintaining respect for their differences and withholding the demand for their assimilation into the dominant culture. Multiculturalism is both a response to the fact of cultural pluralism in modern democracies and a way of compensating cultural groups for past exclusion, discrimination, and oppression. This paper tries to answer the importance of democratic and effective participation of minorities in the national life of plural societies.