Every day Jasmine went to school excited about what she would learn, the games she would play with friends at recess, even what the school would serve for lunch. She liked every aspect of school life. Jasmine enjoyed school because it took her away from the strict atmosphere in her home for a few hours. Her mother was a member of a religious sect that believed in separatism. She had even mentioned to Jasmine that Jasmine would be home schooled after the present term was over.
In school, Jasmine learned about different cultures and how they should be treated equally. She was glad that her family was able to live their individual religious beliefs and still remain a part of the larger culture. However, she was worried. She saw that the pluralism extant in the overall culture could be damaged by pockets of unequal treatment. What would happen if an accepting culture turned into one that sought to absorb everyone in its beliefs? She thought that maybe her mother would be interested in differences between what her social studies teacher called equalitarian pluralism versus inequalitarian pluralism.
Many different belief systems and cultures exist within most societies. When the overall culture embraces the individual cultures, it is said to be pluralistic. Thus, pluralism can be defined as maintaining many socially and culturally distinct elements within a society. In modern thought, there are four qualities of pluralism. It is:
These four elements are meant to produce a society that not only contains different components, but embraces each of those equally.
The issue is that in any cultural context, there are going to be two general groupings of members. One group will actively embrace the different elements within their society (equalitarian pluralism) and others who will see pluralism as degrading the national culture (inequalitarian pluralism). Understanding these competing views is crucial to obtaining a rounded comprehension of how pluralism affects societies.
Neither system is completely positive or negative, but equalitarian pluralism seeks a more overt positive outcome for all people. In this system, all ethnic groups are provided an equal status within the country. This means that multiculturalism and language differences are honored. Some countries even allow some amount of self-government in historically held lands.
The reality of inequalitarian pluralism is nationalism. A society may welcome people from disparate cultural backgrounds, but this type of pluralism creates pockets of cultures that are dominated by the national culture. Often the dominate group uses the subordinate groups as menial labor and does not allow them to aspire to better occupational or economic positions.
Throughout history, both of these systems have been a reality. However, the historic trend has primarily been inequalitarian. Recently, though, there have been some good examples of equalitarian pluralism.
Switzerland has attempted, and even legislated, equalitarian pluralism. There are four official languages - German, Italian, French and Romanish - and benefits are distributed among all the people according to their percentage in the population. Canada consists of both French and English speaking people who have equal protection. Canada is also making significant progress regarding the first nations within Canadian borders. At different times within their ancient history, Greece acted as a nation that allowed self-government among the many different city-states within its national boundaries.
Unfortunately, the number of nations that have exhibited unequal treatment is much greater than those who allowed equality. Germany, under the Nazis, was a great example of inequalitarian pluralism. Others are:
When a nation welcomes others and allows them to maintain their cultural identity on an equal footing with every other entity within the nation, they are equalitarian. However, maintaining a dominant culture that subjugates other culture within national borders is inequalitarian pluralism.
Pluralism, maintaining many socially and culturally distinct elements within a society, can be divided into four characteristics:
There are two types of pluralism and two types: equalitarian pluralism and inequalitarian pluralism . When a culture accepts others and treats them the same regardless, they are equalitarian. When one culture dominates other cultures and uses them, it is inequalitarian.
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UExcel Cultural Diversity: Study Guide & Test Prep17 chapters | 138 lessons | 15 flashcard sets
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