Professor Orvis 4/13

For our first class with Professor Orvis, we discussed a reading called "The new debate on minority rights" by Will Kymlicka. First, Professor Orvis outlined the ideas of liberalism and individual autonomy. There is the question of how liberals deal with group rights and group interactions. In theory, a liberal state should remain neutral among individuals - so how can we distinguish among groups? Kymlicka recognizes that the idea of the state being neutral among groups has never really been true. In fact, there are some areas where it is virtually impossible not to favor one group. The three philosophical approaches to the inclusion of minorities as outlined by Kymlicka are: classic liberalism, communitarianism, and liberal culturalism.

Professor Orvis then asked, What are some of the group issues that arise in the United States in terms of immigration? Some things that were brought up were language, education (in terms of ethnic studies, the way in which history is taught, and equality within educational systems), economic rights (social services, health, income, wages, etc), affirmative action, and political representation.

We then looked further into some of these issues. One that we focused on was political representation, with an emphasis on districting. Is there a way to draw neutral boundaries? A classical liberal would argue for neutral boundaries, which may only be achieved through a computer program. A communitarian may argue for a consociationalist quota system, where each group chooses its own leaders within the group. A liberal culturalist may support race conscious districting or proportional representation.

We also touched on education and affirmative action. The conclusion was that we do include some groups and not others, but how much and on what principle? These are questions we will discuss further in class on Thursday regarding language.