Social Cohesion and Political Inclusion

In my response to Nils Holtug's important book The Politics of Social Cohesion, I consider its specifically political dimensions in several distinct cases, and my general argument is that Holtug is insufficiently attentive to them.Whereas Holtug's excellent book examines the philosophical justification for social justice policies, with respect to the support they offer for multicultural accommodations, my view is that more attention ought to be paid in particular to the political mobilization by minorities that has been central to securing these accommodations.Over the course of this response, I defend the view that when discussing social cohesion and its benefits, our primary focus has to be on political inclusion or political equality-indeed, political inclusion is in a profound way foundational to the inclusion that we seek in other social spaces, for two reasons: (1) it is only if political inclusion is secure that minorities can advocate for the rights they require to secure their equality, for otherwise they have to rely on the good will of others, and that good will is not always forthcoming; and (2) because, otherwise, minorities are treated as the passive recipients of majority beneficence rather than actors in their own right.