Title: Mestizo Democracy: The Politics of Crossing Borders
Abstract: Mestizo Democracy: The Politics of Crossing Borders John Francis Burke Texas A & M University Press, 2004 As everyone knows, ethnic and racial composition of American population is changing rapidly as result of substantial legal immigration and larger illegal immigration. Indeed, it is not just numbers of immigrants, and fact that whereas predominant source of migration was formerly Europe, immigration is now heavily skewed in favor of migrants from Latin America and non-European countries; it is also due to higher birthrate amongst non-European immigrants. These guarantee even greater changes in future, with much higher birthrates among non-White immigrants than among American-born Europoid population. Furthermore, these new immigrants are not being absorbed into prevailing culture of English-speaking America. They are increasingly retaining use of their own languages, and are even served by newspapers, radio stations and television stations in Spanish and several other languages. A very real multiculturalism is taking root. What is interesting about this book is that author not only shows how immigrants and their descendants are modifying American political scene, creating what he calls mestizo democracy, but that result will be multicultural democracy that will be prevented from becoming consolidated into single new hybrid culture due to permeability of American borders which will permit continued immigration of diverse peoples, maintaining multi-ethnic and multi-cultural character of this new America. The author applauds this as an extension of Madison's idea of an extended republic, claiming that very permeability of American borders will safeguard future of democracy in America because the larger society, more capable it will be of self-government. One questions whether Madison was right, when one compares success of democracy in small countries such as Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland, and contrasts that with history of democracy in larger societies such as Russia and China. Nevertheless, Burke not just accepts but positively advocates increased immigration and greater multiculturalism, and urges that need to dare to re-envision scheme of uniry-in-diversity at local, regional and national levels, and, in turn, to project transnational democratic initiatives. Pluralism, he says, should not be seen just as deterrent to tyranny, as Madison saw it, but must be recast in terms of substantive pluralism in crossing borders. Instead of thinking of borders as frontiers, he says, we should think of them as permeable mestizaje which will lead to evolution of a dynamic yet democratic sense of community reflective of our multiple, not univocal, cultural identities. Indeed, he writes, my emphasis on moving beyond territorial boundaries and 'thickly' defined cultural identities is why throughout this text I have looked askance at representation schemes that strive to increase access of diverse groups to political forums solely through geographical districts . …
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
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