Justice and Democracy in Multilingual Societies

Abstract

This panel addresses three normative challenges posed by linguistic diversity, both within and between states. The first of these concerns the possibility and scope of multilingual democracy. According to some political theorists, linguistic diversity undermines democracy. This might be because, for example, citizens struggle to communicate with one another or with their elected representatives, because political discussions take place within linguistic communities but not between them, or because different linguistic communities have competing values or interests. Contributions to this panel will examine the challenges of multilingual demos-formation and the ethics of linguistic electoral discrimination. The second challenge concerns the demands of equality of opportunity in a multilingual setting. Although some theorists of ‘linguistic justice’ have begun to demonstrate how liberal egalitarian ideas might apply to the domain of language policy, proponents of such views have not specified the equalisandum. To help resolve this issue, contributions to this panel will explore the possibility of applying resourcist, welfarist and capability theories to evaluate the distribution of linguistic advantage. The third challenge is the rise of global English and its impact on speakers of other languages. Contributions to this panel will explore the possibility of designing compensation schemes to offset the symbolic and cultural costs of a global lingua franca.

Title	Details
Cosmopolitan Ownership of English	View Paper Details
Democratic Legitimacy and Multilingual Societies	View Paper Details
Realising Linguistic Justice: Resources Versus Capabilities	View Paper Details
Electoral Discrimination and Language Diversity	View Paper Details
Measuring Linguistic Disadvantage	View Paper Details