The Hegemony of Multiculturalism. A Comment on Will Kymlicka’s Theory of Nationalism

The author discusses the theory of liberal nationalism of the prominent Canadian political theorist Will Kymlicka. According to Kymlicka, liberal nationalism is a necessary ingredient of developed liberal democracy, because social justice, deliberative democracy and individual freedom are most efficiently achieved within national political units. Kymlicka defines his theory as liberal culturalism, a doctrinal variety able to unify nationalism and multiculturalism. The author analyses main arguments on which Kymlicka’s theoretical claims are based and maintains that Kymlicka’s justification of nationalism has serious deficits: it uses a too abstract notion of liberal culturalism, neglects alternative theoretical approaches and counter-arguments, wrongly presupposes nationalism as functional prerequisite of democracy, welfare state and individual liberties. In conclusion, it is emphasised that Kymlicka’s theory can be described as morally and politically opportunist: it supports the contemporary hegemonic political practice, which only superficially claims to be multiculturalist, but it has little to offer to contemporary political philosophy.