Dilemmas of ethnic affirmative action. Benign state‐neutrality or relational ethnic neutrality?

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Abstract
Affirmative action policies are in the spotlights again, in America as well as in Europe. Taking stock of recent normative and political debates I clarify the concept and modalities of affirmative action. From my moral pluralist perspective of liberal, democratic socialism conflicting principles of moral and legal equality have to be balanced in a prudent and context‐sensitive way. Wherever severe structural inequalities among ethnic and national groups are reproduced and strengthened, affirmative action is morally required. Some rules of thumb with regard to appropriate modalities, aims, forgetting and public legitimation of affirmative action are discussed. A short comparison of the institutional contexts of the US and The Netherlands demonstrates that ethnic affirmative action is both more morally required and more difficult to realize and to legitimize in the US. Canadians and Europeans beware of an export of US‐American ideological gifts.

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