Smits/3
The second challenge to interest pluralism emerged with the rise of identity politics – a
phenomenon in both theory and activist politics, articulated by the new social movements, in
which marginalized groups demanded inclusion and recognition in the political process on their
own terms.
4
Identity politics transformed the definition of politics from the process by which
decisions are reached, to the processes by which political actors assert their claims to recognition
and inclusion in decision-making. Where the classical liberal model had focused on the
possession of interests as the starting point for politics, identity politics viewed interests as the
secondary products of collective identity, and emphasized the construction of individual identity
through involuntary group membership and social ascription. The “politics of presence” which
followed from identity claims assumed a participatory politics, in which the seeking and
proffering of public recognition of group identity and value became central to the political
process. In effect, identity politics extended the participatory model to encompass ontological
questions.
4
The literature on identity politics is voluminous. For a general analysis see Iris Marion
Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990,) 43-
46, 160-173. For a discussion of its theoretical foundations and the challenges it poses to liberal
democracy see Charles Taylor, “The Politics of Recognition,” in Amy Gutmann, ed.
Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of Recognition (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1994,) 25-73.
Convention