Rick Muir (London, ippr): Liberalism and multiculturalism are once again in the firing line - so three points in their defence. First, I do not recognise Blond and Pabst's description of Britain ‘as a country of many separate communities, living side by side in mutual fear and ignorance'. Recent research for the Commission on Integration and Cohesion shows that 79% of people either agree or strongly agree that people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area. Indeed in only 10 out of 385 areas was support for that statement below 60%. So, while recognising that there are real challenges in some parts of the country, let's put this talk of a ‘divided society' into some context.Second, what do they mean by multiculturalism? This debate generates more heat than light partly because we lack a shared understanding of the key concepts. Multiculturalism understood as public recognition of and support for the diversity of different cultures in our society does not equal segregated schools or housing estates as Blond and Pabst imply. Nor is their any evidence that countries with more multiculturalist policies have less community cohesion: studies have shown for example that Canada and Australia have gone furthest in terms of multiculturalist policies, whereas Germany and France gone least (see Keith Banting). Yet no one would claim that Canada and Australia have experienced more social tensions than France or Germany - the reverse is most likely to be the case.
Final point: the liberalism they attack is a straw man. Liberalism does not seek to ‘drain the public sphere of substantive beliefs' - at its core is a framework of political and civil rights to which each individual is entitled and which guarantees that they can pursue their own substantive visions of the good life. There are rules - organizations or individuals that seek to undermine those rights face sanction by the liberal state. Moreover, liberalism in addition requires some form of common civic culture which fosters certain qualities among citizens - that we are tolerant of others opinions, that we treat people fairly, that we uphold the rule of law, that we participate in public affairs in some minimal respect. Without this civic culture our communities will corrode and the liberal institutions that guarantee our rights will weaken. I agree with Sunny Hundal that we need to do more to foster that civic culture in Britain, but let's not pretend that liberalism is antithetical to it.
