Metanationality, comprehensive democracy and left communitarian rights: lessons from Ghana for South Africa
PDF

Keywords

African democracy
African philosophy
economic justice
rights and citizenship

Abstract

The Ghanaian philosopher, Kwame Gyekye, defends a concept of metanationality (nationality-transcending specific ethnic groups, yet accommodating them all on a basis of equality), which he regards as eminently suitable for application in multicultural societies. Metanationality distinguishes between first- and second-tier solidarity. Second-tier solidarity entails commitment to the democratic institutions of the state and a system of rights to which individuals bear title. These rights include social and economic rights which are backup rights ensuring effective use of political rights. This system of comprehensive democracy requires that the constitution does not differentiate between citizens, though individuals are differentiated at first-tier solidarity with reference to the communocultural groups with whom they identify. Gyekye succeeds in marrying rights to a politics of the common good. This success is due largely to a novel feature of his philosophy - the equal moral standing of individual and community - and to a limitation clause designed to limit liberty whenever it is necessary to protect the requirements of equality. Gyekye’s attempt to find a reciprocal balance between rights and the common good is instructive for attempts in South Africa to effect a just dispensation for all citizens.
https://doi.org/10.4102/koers.v65i1.464
PDF

Copyright information

  • Ownership of copyright in terms of the Work remains with the authors.
  • The authors retain the non-exclusive right to do anything they wish with the Work, provided attribution is given to the place and detail of original publication, as set out in the official citation of the Work published in the journal. The retained right specifically includes the right to post the Work on the authors’ or their institutions’ websites or institutional repository.

Publication and user license

  • The authors grant the title owner and the publisher an irrevocable license and first right and perpetual subsequent right to (a) publish, reproduce, distribute, display and store the Work in  any form/medium, (b) to translate the Work into other languages, create adaptations, summaries or extracts of the Work or other derivative works based on the Work and exercise all of the rights set forth in (a) above in such translations, adaptations, summaries, extracts and derivative works, (c) to license others to do any or all of the above, and (d) to register the Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for the Definitive Work.
  • The authors acknowledge and accept the user licence under which the Work will  be published as set out in https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (Creative Commons Attribution License South Africa)
  • The undersigned warrant that they have the authority to license these publication rights and that no portion of the copyright to the Work has been assigned or licensed previously to any other party.

Disclaimer: The publisher, editors and title owner accept no responsibility for any statement made or opinion expressed by any other person in this Work. Consequently, they will not be liable for any loss or damage sustained by any reader as a result of his or her action upon any statement or opinion in this Work. 
In cases where a manuscript is NOT accepted for publication by the editorial board, the portions of this agreement regarding the publishing licensing shall be null and void and the authors will be free to submit this manuscript to any other publication for first publication.

Our copyright policies are author-friendly and protect the rights of our authors and publishing partners.