The Role of Government in Managing Intercultural Relations

Abstract

When intercultural tensions flare up, governments typically must engage the conflict one way or another. This article questions the possible role of government in transforming these difficult social–cultural–political conflicts into democratic moments. Three theoretical approaches to democracy compete for status in the realm of multicultural politics: majoritarian, consociational, and deliberative democracy. The multicultural features of these three theoretical models are compared in the context of one divided society, Macedonia, a place where the government has been assigned a new role: to implement a policy regarding multicultural inclusion. Since the so‐called Framework Agreement of 2001 has been in effect, interethnic conflict in Macedonia has not been the overheated political problem it was at the inception of the Agreement, even though cultural groups remain divided, anxieties continue, and policy processes are mostly top–down.