the community, for instance, in their assuring that future
generations continue to identify as French-speakers. There is
no way that these policies could be seen as just providing a
facility to already existing people.
Quebeckers, therefore, and those who give similar importance
to this kind of collective goal, tend to opt for a rather
different model of a liberal society. On their view, a society
can be organized around a definition of the good life, without
this being seen as a depreciation of those who do not
personally share this definition. Where the nature of the
good requires that it be sought in common, this is the reason
for its being a matter of public policy. According to this conception,
a liberal society singles itself out as such by the way
in which it treats minorities, including those who do not
share public definitions of the good, and above all by the
rights it accords to all of its members. But now the rights in
question are conceived to be the fundamental and crucial
ones that have been recognized as such from the very beginning
of the liberal tradition: rights to life, liberty, due process,
free speech, free pracice of religion, and so on. On this
model, there is a dangerous overlooking of an essential
boundary in speaking of fundamental rights to things like
commercial signage in the language of one’s choice. One has
to distinguish the fundamental liberties, those that should
never be infringed and therefore ought to be unassailably entrenched,
on one hand, from privileges and immunities that
are important, but that can be revoked or restricted for reasons
of public policy—although one would need a strong
reason to do this—on the other.
A society with strong collective goals can be liberal, on this
view, provided it is also capable of respecting diversity, especially
when dealing with those who do not share its common
goals; and provided it can offer adequate safeguards for
fundamental rights. There will undoubtedly be tensions and
difficulties in pursuing these objectives together, but such a
pursuit is not impossible, and the problems are not in princi-
the community, for instance, in their assuring that future
generations continue to identify as French-speakers. There is
no way that these policies could be seen as just providing a
facility to already existing people.
Quebeckers, therefore, and those who give similar importance
to this kind of collective goal, tend to opt for a rather
different model of a liberal society. On their view, a society
can be organized around a definition of the good life, without
this being seen as a depreciation of those who do not
personally share this definition. Where the nature of the
good requires that it be sought in common, this is the reason
for its being a matter of public policy. According to this conception,
a liberal society singles itself out as such by the way
in which it treats minorities, including those who do not
share public definitions of the good, and above all by the
rights it accords to all of its members. But now the rights in
question are conceived to be the fundamental and crucial
ones that have been recognized as such from the very beginning
of the liberal tradition: rights to life, liberty, due process,
free speech, free pracice of religion, and so on. On this
model, there is a dangerous overlooking of an essential
boundary in speaking of fundamental rights to things like
commercial signage in the language of one’s choice. One has
to distinguish the fundamental liberties, those that should
never be infringed and therefore ought to be unassailably entrenched,
on one hand, from privileges and immunities that
are important, but that can be revoked or restricted for reasons
of public policy—although one would need a strong
reason to do this—on the other.
A society with strong collective goals can be liberal, on this
view, provided it is also capable of respecting diversity, especially
when dealing with those who do not share its common
goals; and provided it can offer adequate safeguards for
fundamental rights. There will undoubtedly be tensions and
difficulties in pursuing these objectives together, but such a
pursuit is not impossible, and the problems are not in princi-
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