Cultural Pluralism in the United States and in the Projected European Union

Abstract

As political, perhaps cultural, and certainly economic forms of unity emerge in Western Europe, it becomes increasingly important for Europeans—and for Americans also—to examine sympathetically the American experience in cultural pluralism for areas of relevance to the European situation. Without some of the elements that have gone into the making of a successful United States, the Europeans may well succeed in creating material prosperity through their Common Market but fail in other areas, primarily in human relations and guaranteed freedoms. The leading strains of cultural pluralism in the United States which would be relevant to the European situation are embodied in the federal system, church-state separation, the absorption of immigration, democ racy, and constitutionalism. Europe does not have a good record for democratic government, and the democratic proc esses will bear careful watching. The question of the relative positions of church and state is unresolved in many countries in Europe and will pose grave problems. Difficulties can be anticipated in Europe in the area of constitutionalism, because people need a guiding ideal to draw them together. European union to date has been based on reaction to the horrors of war and the fear of Soviet military domination. Without a central principle to hold them together, Europe may lapse from union as the war recedes into the past and the fear of Soviet domination is relaxed.—Ed.