Abstract

Because contemporary liberal pluralistic democracies are “open,” they have problems dealing with strong minorities, whose members mobilize either against the social system, or against another minority. Conflicts of legitimacy and of interest arise, fed mainly by the inequalities in social mobility or political, economic or media representation between minority groups. Infranational groups within the framework of nation-states compete with one another for access to various goods (e.g., particular rights, statutes, positions of power, etc.), redefining public space as an arena where diverse and contradictory demands and claims meet and clash. The erosion of the nation-state in the context of globalization,…