Multi-culturalism in Europe and North America

This article compares the debate about multiculturalism as it has emerged in Western Europe and North America. So far as the former is concerned, it sets out a model of an egalitarian multicultural society which insists upon a shared political culture in the public domain but allows for the fostering minority cultures in the private communal domain. It sets out some of the difficulties with which this model has been confronted by European social scientists dealing especially with the relations between the Welfare State and institutions for multi-cultural consultation. In the United States case the debate about multiculturalism is shown to deal with two issues: disillusionment with the process of affirmative action and the possibility of the unity of American culture and society being destroyed. Finally the separate case of Canada is considered, differing from that of the United States, in that Canada lacks the American heritage of slavery and is based in the public, sphere on two founding nations