Abstract
The author focuses on several dimensions of multiculturalism as an ideology of pluralism and diversity. To this end, he uses a series of correlative terms, such as: diversity, autonomy, cultural canon, interculturalism. The affirmation of the cultural identity is shown to be a resource for participating to the public life, to the negotiation of the interests and for participating to the political process of decision-making. The author believes that the access to the public sphere presupposes the previous elaboration of special policies meant to guarantee the preservation of the alternative identities. Consequently, the educational policies are proved to be very important. An illustrative example is the multicultural model of Babes-Bolyai University from Cluj, Romania