Can Liberal Pluralism Be Exported?: Western Political Theory and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe

Jaroslaw Zurowsky is a translator and editor in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Geared to university courses dealing with Eastern Europe, Can Liberal
Pluralism Be Exported? offers a timely examination of ethnic relations
in Eastern Europe and the newly created republics of the former Soviet
Union, and a comparison of those relations with what is being done in
Western Europe, North America, and Australia. The book begins with
editor Will Kymlicka’s analysis of immigration to the Western world
and the methods of integrating new immigrants into foreign social
structures. Fifteen responses to Kymlicka’s “liberal pluralism”
thesis are followed by his rebuttal. Significantly, the responses
represent not only the major players in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine,
and Poland but also the opinions of those who are generally passed over
by the Western media (e.g., Latvia, Estonia, and Uzbekistan).

The essays are well written and informative, with most adopting a
dispassionate, academic stance that masks the emotionalism of the issue
of ethnic relations. Nevertheless, this valuable book will stimulate
important debate not just about post-Soviet life, but about how
immigrants are accepted into North American society.