Do Multiculturalism Policies Erode the Welfare State
Do Multiculturalism Policies Erode the Welfare State
复制标题
多元文化政策会侵蚀福利国家吗
DOI：
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发表时间：
2003
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
W. Kymlicka
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
K. Banting;W. Kymlicka
过去30年，西方民主国家对待少数民族的方式发生了巨大变化。过去，族裔多样性往往被视为对政治稳定的威胁，少数群体受到一系列旨在同化或边缘化他们的政策的影响。今天，许多西方民主国家采取了一种更加包容的做法。这反映在对移民群体广泛采取多元文化政策，接受少数民族的领土自治和语言权利，以及承认土著人民的土地要求和自治权利。我们把这些政策称为多元文化政策或MCP。由于两个原因，MCP的采用一直存在争议。第一种是哲学批判，认为MCP本质上不符合基本的自由民主原则。然而，自20世纪90年代中期以来，这场哲学辩论得到了第二个论点的补充：即，MCP使维持强大的福利国家（以下简称WS）变得更加困难。批评者担心，这样的政策侵蚀人际信任，社会团结和政治联盟，维持一个强大的再分配的WS. This审查的原因，批评者认为，MCP削弱政治支持再分配，然后实证检验是否采用MCP，事实上，与WS. This检查涉及两个步骤的侵蚀：我们开发了一个MCP的分类，并将西方民主国家的MCP水平分为强，中等或弱。然后，我们研究是否与侵蚀的WS在20世纪80年代和90年代的MCP的强度。通过四个指标的变化来衡量福利系统的演变：社会支出占国内生产总值的百分比;税收和转移支付的再分配影响;儿童贫困程度;以及收入不平等程度。我们没有发现任何证据表明MCP的采用和WS的侵蚀之间存在一致的关系。我们的分析有局限性，我们希望它能刺激进一步的研究。然而，这里提出的初步证据是明确的：批评MCP的人提出的理由没有得到支持。西方社会日益增加的族裔多样性，产生了建立新的和更具包容性的公民身份和民族认同形式的压力。本文中的证据表明，关于多元文化主义政策作为对这种多样性的一种回应的适当性的辩论，不应该被关于它们对华尔街的影响的无根据的恐惧所取代。
The past 30 years have witnessed a dramatic change in the way Western democracies deal with ethnic minorities. In the past, ethnic diversity was often seen as a threat to political stability, and minorities were subject to a range of policies intended to assimilate or marginalize them. Today, many Western democracies have adopted a more accommodating approach. This is reflected in the widespread adoption of multiculturalism policies for immigrant groups, the acceptance of territorial autonomy and language rights for national minorities, and the recognition of land claims and self-government rights for indigenous peoples. We refer to these policies as multiculturalism policies or MCPs. The adoption of MCPs has been controversial, for two reasons. The first is a philosophical critique, which argues that MCPs are inherently inconsistent with basic liberal-democratic principles. Since the mid-1990s, however, this philosophical debate has been supplemented by a second argument: namely, that MCPs make it more difficult to sustain a robust Welfare State (hereafter WS). Critics worry that such policies erode the interpersonal trust, social solidarity and political coalitions that sustain a strongly redistributive WS. This paper reviews the reasons why critics believe that MCPs weaken political support for redistribution, and then examines empirically whether the adoption of MCPs has, in fact, been associated with erosion of the WS. This examination involves two steps: we develop a taxonomy of MCPs and classify Western democracies as strong, modest or weak in their level of MCPs. We then examine whether the strength of MCPs is associated with the erosion of the WS during the 1980s and 1990s. The evolution of the WS is measured through change in four indicators: social spending as a percentage of GDP; the redistributive impact of taxes and transfers; levels of child poverty; and the level of income inequality. We find no evidence of a consistent relationship between the adoption of MCPs and the erosion of the WS. Our analysis has limits, and we hope it stimulates further research. Nevertheless, the preliminary evidence presented here is clear: the case advanced by critics of MCPs is not supported. The growing ethnic diversity of Western societies has generated pressures for the construction of new and more inclusive forms of citizenship and national identity. The evidence in this paper suggests that debates over the appropriateness of multiculturalism policies as one response to this diversity should not be preempted by unsupported fears about their impact on the WS.