Whose democracy?

The years since the collapse of communism in 1989 have witnessed a dangerous renewal of religious intolerance and nationalist demands across Eastern Europe. In this provocative application of moral philosophy to contemporary political processes, Sabrina P. Ramet draws upon the literature of Natural Law to demonstrate that liberal democracy depends on a delicate balance between individual and societal rights. Appeals to the collective rights of national and religious groups rest on spurious claims, as Ramet convincingly shows in her analysis of the situations of Hungarians in Slovakia, Albanians in Kosovo, theoretically inclined Catholic bishops in Poland, Serbs in Croatia, and contending forces in post-Dayton Bosnia. What Ramet calls the doctrine of collective rights actually subverts the liberal democratic project, legitimating instead intolerance and group exclusivity.