Polarisation – A multiculturalist response

Theorists of multiculturalism are seldom thought to offer a response to polarisation and might even be thought to exacerbate it as their ideas are often claimed to be divisive. This article shows why once we have a clearer idea about what polarisation is and when it is a problem, the multiculturalist Bhikhu Parekh has plausible ideas about how to respond to it.Note that Bhikhu did not write about polarisation. Yet one indicator of the significance of a political thinker is that she or he has enough insight into the nature of political life for their ideas to have implications for features of political life they have said little or nothing about. This I believe is true of Bhikhu, and it is why his ideas can indicate how to respond to polarisation.I first show what polarisation is and when it becomes a problem. Second, I discuss why Bhikhu’s ideas offer a plausible response to it.