Multinational Democracies

Fifteen leading political scientists and political theorists provide the first collaborative study of existing multinational democracies and the difficulties involved in governing them. This book concentrates on European and North American democracies and will be of interest to those concerned about the increasing plurality and cultural complexity of modern societies.

Multinational Democracies is the first collaborative, multiperspective critical survey of a new and distinctive type of political association that is coming into prominence in the twenty-first century. These are democratic societies that are not only multicultural but also multinational: that is, they comprise two or more nations. Fifteen leading comparative political scientists and political theorists from Europe and North America clarify the complex character and tensions of multinational democracies by reflecting on four exemplars - the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium and Canada. The work offers a new approach to the study, understanding and governing of multinational societies and, in so doing, of culturally diverse societies more generally. This volume will be of interest to those concerned with diverse societies, nationalism, struggles for recognition, federalism and democratic constitutionalism in conditions of pluralism.