Cultural and Religious Minorities

This chapter examines issues of distributive justice as they relate to religious minorities and to cultural minorities belonging to polyethnic societies. In many instances, distributive justice requires only that those minorities should enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities as others. Sometimes, however, justice is thought to require different rather than identical treatment, such as the exemption of minorities from laws or rules with which others have to comply. The chapter examines the justice of exemptions and other forms of accommodation that provide for the religious and cultural liberty of minorities, and for their opportunities to access other sorts of good such as employment. It also considers how distributive justice bears on the relative standing that a society’s different religions and cultures should enjoy.