
Cambridge University Press
9780521874878 - Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism - by Sarah Song
Frontmatter/Prelims
Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism
Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism explores the tensions that arise when culturally diverse democratic states pursue both justice for religious and cultural minorities and justice for women. Sarah Song provides a distinctive argument about the circumstances under which egalitarian justice requires special accommodations for cultural minorities while emphasizing the value of gender equality as an important limit on cultural accommodation. Drawing on detailed case studies of gendered cultural conflicts, including conflicts over the “cultural defense” in criminal law, aboriginal membership rules, and polygamy, Song offers a fresh perspective on multicultural politics by examining the role of intercultural interactions in shaping such conflicts. In particular, she demonstrates the different ways that majority institutions have reinforced gender inequality in minority communities and, in light of this, argues in favor of resolving gendered cultural dilemmas through intercultural democratic dialogue.
SARAH SONG is Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
Contemporary Political Theory
Series Editors
Ian Shapiro
Editorial Board
Russell Hardin
Stephen Holmes
Jeffrey Isaac
John Keane
Elizabeth Kiss
Susan Okin
Phillipe Van Parijs
Philip Pettit
As the twenty-first century begins, major new political challenges have arisen at the same time as some of the most enduring dilemmas of political association remain unresolved. The collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War reflect a victory for democratic and liberal values, yet in many of the Western countries that nurtured those values there are severe problems of urban decay, class and racial conflict, and failing political legitimacy. Enduring global injustice and inequality seem compounded by environmental problems, disease, the oppression of women, racial, ethnic, and religious minorities, and the relentless growth of the world’s population. In such circumstances, the need for creative thinking about the fundamentals of human political association is manifest. This new series in contemporary political theory is needed to foster such systematic normative reflection.
The series proceeds in the belief that the time is ripe for a reassertion of the importance of problem-driven political theory. It is concerned, that is, with works that are motivated by the impulse to understand, think critically about, and address the problems in the world, rather than issues that are thrown up primarily in academic debate. Books in the series may be interdisciplinary in character, ranging over issues conventionally dealt with in philosophy, law, history, and the human sciences. The range of materials and the methods of proceeding should be dictated by the problem at hand, not the conventional debates or disciplinary divisions of academia.
Other books in the series
Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker-Cordόn (eds.) Democracy’s Value
Ian Shapiro and Casiano Hacker-Cordόn (eds.) Democracy’s Edges
Brooke A. Ackerly Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism
Clarissa Rile Hayward De-Facing Power
John Kane The Politics of Moral Capital
Ayelet Shachar Multicultural Jurisdictions
John Keane Global Civil Society?
Rogers M. Smith Stories of Peoplehood
Gerry Mackie Democracy Defended
John Keane Violence and Democracy
Kok-Chor Tan Justice without Borders
Peter J. Steinberger The Idea of the State
Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism
Sarah Song
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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© Sarah Song 2007
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2007
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Justice, gender, and the politics of multiculturalism / Sarah Song.
p. cm. – (Contemporary political theory)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-87487-8 (hardback : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-521-69759-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Sex discrimination against women. 2. Women’s rights. 3. Minorities – Civil
rights. 4. Multiculturalism. 5. Pluralism (Social sciences) 6. Culture
conflict. 7. Social Justice. I. Song, Sarah, 1973– II. Title. III. Series.
HQ1237.J87 2007
305.48′8 – dc22 200700749
ISBN 978-0-521-87487-8 hardback
ISBN 978-0-521-69759-0 paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for
the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or
third-party internet websites referred to in this book,
and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
For my parents
Contents
Acknowledgments | page xi | |
1 | Introduction | 1 |
The problem of internal minorities | 2 | |
Reframing the debate | 4 | |
Justice and the claims of culture | 8 | |
Outline of the book | 11 | |
Part I | 15 | |
2 | The concept of culture in political theory | 17 |
Culture as an “irreducibly social good” | 17 | |
Culture as a “primary good” | 22 | |
The structure of identity | 29 | |
The constructivist challenge | 31 | |
3 | Justice and multiculturalism: an egalitarian argument for cultural accommodation | 41 |
Why equality? | 43 | |
Rights-respecting accommodationism | 46 | |
Present discrimination | 51 | |
Historical injustice | 53 | |
State establishment of culture | 61 | |
T he role of deliberation | 68 | |
Part II | 85 | |
4 | The “cultural defense” in American criminal law | 87 |
“Marriage by capture” and the law of rape | 89 | |
“Wife murder” and the doctrine of provocation | 93 | |
A qualified defense of the “cultural defense” | 100 | |
Potential boomerang effects | 109 | |
Conclusion | 112 | |
5 | Tribal sovereignty and the Santa Clara Pueblo case | 114 |
Tribal sovereignty and gendered rules of tribal membership | 115 | |
The state’s role in the politics of tradition formation | 120 | |
Intercultural congruence and the accommodation of tribal practices | 127 | |
The limits of tribal sovereignty | 131 | |
6 | Polygamy in America | 142 |
The rise and fall of Mormon polygamy | 143 | |
The antipolygamy movement and the diversionary effect | 145 | |
Mormon polygamy today | 156 | |
A case for qualified recognition | 160 | |
Conclusion | 165 | |
7 | Epilogue | 169 |
References | 178 | |
Index | 192 |
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