Liberal multiculturalism

Multiculturalism is the most recent member of political theory family and also the most contested across Western Europe. Four prime ministers publicly acknowledged the failure of „multikulti” and this contrast with the initially broad consensus in political theory on multicultural policies. Usually multiculturalism is associated with the communitarianism but there are three distinct types of justification for multiculturalism, namely the postcolonial, the communitarian and the liberal one. The article deals only with the evolution of liberal defense of multiculturalism in the political theory of William Kymlicka. Although his „liberal culturalism” became gradually more sophisticated, historic and specific circumstances of Eastern and Central Europe limit the scope of multicultural policies in this area.