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Paradoxes of Liberal DemocracyIslam, Western Europe, and the Danish Cartoon Crisis$
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Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy: Islam, Western Europe, and the Danish Cartoon Crisis

Paul M. Sniderman, Michael Bang Petersen, Rune Slothuus, and Rune Stubager

Print publication date: 2014

Print ISBN-13: 9780691161105

Published to Princeton Scholarship Online: October 2017

DOI: 10.23943/princeton/9780691161105.001.0001

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PRINTED FROM PRINCETON SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE (www.princeton.universitypressscholarship.com). (c) Copyright Princeton University Press, 2022. All Rights Reserved. An individual user may print out a PDF of a single chapter of a monograph in PRSO for personal use.date: 06 July 2022

The Covenant Paradox

The Covenant Paradox

Chapter:
(p.52) Chapter 3 The Covenant Paradox
Source:
Paradoxes of Liberal Democracy
Author(s):

Paul M. Sniderman

Michael Bang Petersen

Rune Slothuus

Rune Stubager

Publisher:
Princeton University Press
DOI:10.23943/princeton/9780691161105.003.0003

This chapter presents a theory of the covenant paradox, i.e., the moral covenant underpinning the welfare state that simultaneously promotes equal treatment for (some) immigrants and provides a platform for discrimination against (other) immigrants. It first discusses under what conditions and why the moral premises of the welfare state favor the equal treatment of immigrants. It then considers under what conditions and why the very same moral premises open the door to discrimination against immigrants. It shows that the key to these contradictory outcomes is the temporal logic of evaluative judgments. Prospective judgments of benefits and obligations favor equal treatment. Retrospective judgments, again of benefits and obligations, pave the way for discriminatory treatment.

Keywords:   welfare state, immigrants, equal treatment, discrimination, evaluative judgments, prospective judgments, retrospective judgments, covenant paradox

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