scholarly journals Direct Democracy and the Rights of Cultural Minorities in Swiss

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-57
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Matyja
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Cultural Minorities ◽  
Economic Migration ◽  
The Third World ◽  
National Languages

The minorities in Switzerland are in the first place ethno-linguistic minorities, whose are unified by a common language. Therefore, since the foundation of the Confederation in 1848 the Helvetic state has been considered a multilingual country. The confederation and cantons are obliged to protect linguistic minorities. The grounds of the Swiss social structure, with traditional multiculturalism and four national languages are two principles: language freedom (Sprachenfreiheit) and territoriality (Territorialitätsprinzip). Switzerland has no official state religion. Predominant religion is Christianity, the largest religious minorities is established by Islam. The largest Christian denominations are Catholic Church (37.7%) and Swiss Reformed Church (25.5%). The influx of new cultural minorities to Switzerland began after the Second World War and was directly connected with economic migration, with the large influx of gastarbeiters from southern European countries and refugees from the Third World and from the former Yugoslavia.International law includes the protection of national, yet not cultural minorities. In Switzerland the protection of national minorities is also based on international standards. Is the Swiss multiculturalism an example for other countries?

scholarly journals Determinant factors of multiculturalism in Switzerland

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
Mirosław Matyja
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Integration Policy ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Cultural Minorities ◽  
Economic Migration ◽  
The Third World ◽  
National Languages

Abstract Switzerland consists of different regions, cultures and languages. The minorities in Switzerland are in the first place ethno-linguistic minorities, whose are unified by a common language. Therefore, since the foundation of the Confederation in 1848 the Helvetic state has been considered a multilingual country. The confederation and cantons are obliged to protect linguistic minorities. The grounds of the Swiss social structure, with traditional multiculturalism and four national languages are two principles: language freedom (Sprachenfreiheit) and territoriality (Territorialitätsprinzip). Switzerland has no official state religion. Predominant religion is Christianity, the largest religious minorities is established by Islam. The largest Christian denominations are Catholic Church (37.7%) and Swiss Reformed Church (25.5%). The influx of new cultural minorities to Switzerland began aXer the Second World War and was directly connected with economic migration, with the large influx of gastarbeiters from southern European countries and refugees from the Third World and from the former Yugoslavia. International law includes the protection of national, yet not cultural minorities. In Switzerland the protection of national minorities is also based on international standards. The necessity for systematic integration policy in Switzerland appeared in the nineties of the twentieth century, after removing the anti-immigration tendencies and hostile attitude towards foreigners. There is a conflict of interest between democracy and state under the rule of law, and between majoritarian democratic politics and liberal principles. The conflict can be controlled; however it can not be resolved. The principle of the Swiss “unity in multiplicity” is best reflected in the multiculturalism and multilingualism of Switzerland, but also a relatively high percentage of the foreigners.

scholarly journals Specificity of Multiculturalism in Switzerland

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 18-36
Author(s):  
Miroslaw Matyja
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Cultural Minorities ◽  
Economic Migration ◽  
The Third World ◽  
National Languages ◽  
Second World

Switzerland consists of different regions, cultures and languages. The minorities in Switzerland are in the first place ethno-linguistic minorities, whose are unified by a common language. Therefore, since the foundation of the Confederation in 1848 the Helvetic state has been considered a multilingual country. The confederation and cantons are obliged to protect linguistic minorities. The grounds of the Swiss social structure, with traditional multiculturalism and four national languages are two principles: language freedom (Sprachenfreiheit) and territoriality (Territorialitätsprinzip). Switzerland has no official state religion. Predominant religion is Christianity, the largest religious minorities is established by Islam. The largest Christian denominations are Catholic Church (37.7%) and Swiss Reformed Church (25.5%). The influx of new cultural minorities to Switzerland began after the Second World War and was directly connected with economic migration, with the large influx of gastarbeiters from southern European countries and refugees from the Third World and from the former Yugoslavia.International law includes the protection of national, yet not cultural minorities. In Switzerland the protection of national minorities is also based on international standards.

scholarly journals The Catholic 1968: Poland, Social Justice, and the Global Cold War

Slavic Review ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 638-660 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr H. Kosicki
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Development ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Sexual Politics ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Humanae Vitae ◽  
New Vision ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Catholic Church

In the 1960s, the Catholic Church underwent a revolution in the teaching and practice of its faith, known as aggiornamento. Catholics responded by pioneering new forms of agency in world affairs in the Global Sixties. This was a cross-Iron Curtain story, affecting communist and non-communist countries in Europe, as well as developing countries across the world – a story of transfers and encounters unfolding simultaneously along multiple geographical axes: “East-West,” “North-South,” and “East-South.” The narrative anchor for this story is the year 1968. This article explores the seminal role of east European Catholics in this story, focusing on Polish Catholic intellectuals as they wrote and rewrote global narratives of political economy and sexual politics. A global Catholic conversation on international development stalled as sexual politics reinforced Cold War and post-colonial divisions, with the Second and Third Worlds joining forces against First World critics of a new papal teaching on contraception, Humanae Vitae. Paradoxically, the Soviet Bloc became the prism through which the Catholic Church refracted a new vision of international development for the Third World.

Spirituality, Administration, and Normativity in Current Church Organization

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 221-242
Author(s):  
Maria Ershova ◽  
Jan Hermelink
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Competing Values Framework ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Competing Values ◽  
Church Organization ◽  
Reformed Church ◽  
Science And Theology

Abstract The paper addresses issues regarding the current balance between spirituality and administration in different church denominations using an interdisciplinary approach which combines management science and theology. It presents a comparative study of organizational culture of the Roman Catholic Church, a Lutheran church, and a Reformed church with the use of the questionnaire based on the Competing Values Framework (Cameron/Quinn) and qualitative interviews with leading persons in church. The authors discuss the findings from two different but complementary perspectives: in relation to the four types of organizational cultures in the Cameron/Quinn framework, and as a result of the specific denominational semantics represented in the questionnaire used for the study. The results show how the question of modernity is reflected in organizational culture of churches, and how deeply the respondents’ perception of church is influenced by inherent normativity. One of the central conclusions is that religiously rooted normativity serves as an instrument of balancing the administrative and the spiritual in church.

On the Intrinsic Value of Arabic in Israel—Challenging Kymlicka on Language Rights

2007 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meital Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
General Question ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Language Rights ◽  
Linguistic Minorities ◽  
Complex Situation ◽  
Intrinsic Interest ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Israeli Arabs

In the postcolonial era, we have witnessed waves of mass immigration. Consequently, many states are no longer associated with just one or two national languages. Newly formed immigrant minorities raise demands for language rights, alongside national minorities, which raise similar demands.Such a complex situation exists, for example, in Canada, where only French and English are declared official languages although there are other languages, such as Chinese, which are spoken by large communities of people. My paper addresses the general question of which linguistic minorities are most entitled to comprehensive language rights. Will Kymlicka distinguishes between national minorities, which he regards as deserving of comprehensive language rights, and immigrant minorities which are not. Many scholars challenge Kymlicka’s distinction. However, none of them have suggested alternative criteria for distinguishing minority languages that are entitled to protection from minority languages that are less entitled to protection. In my paper, I suggest such a criterion. My alternative criterion is based on the intrinsic interest people have in protecting their own language as the marker of their cultural identity, thus, comprehensive language rights are to be accorded to linguistic minorities that possess the strongest intrinsic interest in the protection of their language as their marker of cultural identity. I apply my criterion to the Israeli case, in which there are two dominant linguistic minorities: the Arab national minority and the Jewish Russian immigrant minority. Relying on general criticism of Kymlicka’s distinction, I argue that this distinction is not applicable to the Israeli linguistic case. Applying my alternative criterion to the Israeli case, I argue that Israeli Arabs have a stronger interest in Arabic than the Russian Jewish minority has in Russian because Arabic constitutes Israeli Arabs’ exclusive marker of identity.

Finnish humanity and independence The breadth of Bawa's oeuvre

2003 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-103
Author(s):  
DAVID ROBSON
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Third World ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
The Third ◽  
Population Explosion ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Catholic Church

I would like to respond to one of the points raised by Richard Murphy in his perceptive review of my book on Geoffrey Bawa (arq 7/1, pp86–88). His description of Bawa as an architect ‘in the Third World but decidedly not of it’ exercised by the fact that Bawa, like Luis Barragán, failed to address ‘pressing problems of population explosion and rapid urbanization’ in his work and that ‘with the exception of some work for the Catholic Church, Bawa's opus was built exclusively for the country's elite’.

Contextualizing Multiculturalism: A Three Dimensional Examination of Multicultural Claims

2007 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 309-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gila Stopler
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Orthodox Jews ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Cultural Minorities ◽  
Third Dimension ◽  
The Right ◽  
Nancy Fraser ◽  
Multicultural Theory

The emergence of multicultural theory and of claims of recognition by cultural, ethnic, and national minorities has brought to the forefront previously neglected aspects of the right to equality. However, when judged on their own, claims for recognition stand the risk of failing to fully capture, and even distorting, the meaning of equality. I suggest that in order to avoid this risk, multicultural claims need to be contextualized. Employing Nancy Fraser’s framework of two dimensions of justice—recognition and redistribution—and adding a third dimension—political participation, I suggest a framework for a contextualized assessment of multicultural claims that allows us to properly and fully assess their validity. I then go on to employ this framework on the claims of Israel’s two most significant cultural minorities—the Palestinian Arabs and the Ultra Orthodox Jews. I show how the use of the suggested framework helps to expose the considerable differences between these two cultural minorities, and consequently the notable difference in the merits of their claims, a difference that would have otherwise gone undetected.

Radicalism in the Argentine Catholic Church

1975 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
John T. Deiner
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Third World ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Past ◽  
Visible Effect ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Third World ◽  
The Church

ON 11 MAY 1974 FATHER MUGICA, A LEADING SPOKESMAN OF THE Movement of Priests for the Third World (MPTW) and a pro- Peronist, was machine-gunned to death as he left his church in a working-class neighbourhood after celebrating mass. Once again the Catholic Church in Argentina called for peace and understanding as the proper path for Argentines, and the MPTW issued a long statement condemning the use of violence. Nevertheless, the common pleas by the two factions of the Church in Argentina have had little visible effect in stopping the violence through which Argentina is now suffering. In order to understand how the political and doctrinal differences from within the Church in Argentina have influenced in the past and will continue to influence the political developments in Argentina it is first necessary to look at the background of the problem.

Linguistic Minority Rights in the Danish-German Border Region: Reciprocity and Public Administration Policies

2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 485-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tove H. Malloy ◽  
Sonja Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
International Standards ◽  
Border Region ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
Linguistic Minority ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
The Government ◽  
Regional Or Minority Languages

Language equality is not public policy in Denmark or Germany, and neither country has adopted an official state language constitutionally. Both countries protect minority languages through regional and local statutes on culture and education and have signed relevant international standards on linguistic rights for minorities and protection of regional or minority languages. Neither system is very transparent, nor comprehensive. This has created consternation and dissatisfaction among the national minorities residing in the Danish-German border region resulting in recent tensions in the municipalities in Southern Denmark, whereas the government of Schleswig-Holstein decided in 2015 to address the issue with policy reforms for public administration. This article focuses on linguistic minority rights in the Danish-German border region with specific attention to minority languages in public administration and specifically to the on-going reforms in Schleswig-Holstein.

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