Liberalists seek to accommodate minorities
[David; January 10; B.A. from the University of Cambridge, Professor of political theory at the University of Oxford; Justice for Earthlings: Essays in Political Philosophy; “Liberalism, equal opportunities and cultural commitments”; Ch.4]
So in one respect liberalism requires more than equality of opportunity, important though that principle is. In another respect, however, it may require something less. Liberals need to be concerned about the conditions under which a liberal society can remain stable over time, in the sense that its members remain committed to preserving it, and committed to settling their differences in ways that are consistent with liberalism itself (not trampling on the rights or interests of minority groups, for instance). To achieve this, citizens are likely to need to share not only political principles but also some wider cultural values: I have argued at some length elsewhere that a shared sense of nationality is an essential precondition for democratic procedures to work effectively and for citizens to support the institutions and policies that deliver social justice. 6 There is some dispute about how ‘thick’ these shared cultural values need to be. 7 All I want to say here is that liberal societies may justifiably favour those cultural values that in any given place play this supporting role. For instance, it is not wrong to favour the national language or languages when designing education systems or other public institutions, even if this limits the opportunities of those whose native tongues are different. Liberals should seek to accommodate the minority cultures in cases like this, but they need not aim for strict equality.