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Targeted policy in multicultural societies: accommodation, denial, and replacement *
Author(s) -
De Zwart Frank
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/j.0020-8701.2005.00538.x
Subject(s) - denial , accommodation , redistribution (election) , dilemma , multiculturalism , reasonable accommodation , government (linguistics) , political economy , beneficiary , development economics , political science , public economics , economics , politics , law , psychology , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , neuroscience , psychoanalysis
Targeted redistribution in multicultural societies can pose “the dilemma of recognition”: the beneficiary groups have to be officially recognised, defined, and sometimes mobilised, which accentuates group distinctions and thus threatens to contribute to conflict, discrimination, and inequality instead of combating it. Many governments are well aware of this dilemma, and to resolve it they modify the category system used in redistributive policies. This paper analyses the options governments have – accommodation, denial, and replacement – and concentrates on the latter. Replacement means that a government constructs the targets of redistributive policies so as to avoid accentuation or recognition of inconvenient group distinctions, but still allow redistribution that benefits these groups. The question is, does it work? Replacement is increasingly in demand, in countries around the world, but its effects are little researched. This paper elaborates on two exemplary cases – India and Nigeria – which have experimented with replacement ever since the 1950s and provide ample opportunity to research its long‐term effects.