https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591717696020 Political Theory 1–9 © 2017 SAGE Publications Reprints and permissions: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0090591717696020 journals.sagepub.com/home/ptx Review Symposium Cultural Proceduralism, Cultural Preservation, and Public Education Chiara Cordelli 1 Do liberal states have a duty to help members of minority groups preserve their own culture, or is their duty limited to granting to minorities the same rights and duties that apply to the majority? Alan Patten has powerfully argued that neither of these responses to cultural diversity is appropriate. 1 In his view, the members of minority groups have no claim to cultural preserva- tion as such. Yet, they have a claim to a fair opportunity for self-determina- tion, that is, an opportunity to pursue the conception of the good that they happen to hold. Securing this fair opportunity, under some circumstances, requires granting to minorities special rights, above and beyond the rights that apply to all citizens. Once a liberal state has secured a fair opportunity for self-determination to the members of all cultures, if some cultures disappear because of how other persons’ cultural preferences aggregate in society, members of the lost culture are left with no complaint, at least not on grounds of justice (29). I shall refer to this view as cultural proceduralism. 2 Cultural proceduralism would seem to strike a perfect compromise between the excessive demands of non-proceduralist accounts of cultural jus- tice, which directly aim at cultural preservation, and the insufficient protec- tion many liberals afford to culture. On the one hand, cultural proceduralism rules out as unreasonable, because incompatible with individuals’ responsi- bility for cultural preferences, demands for cultural accommodation, beyond those necessary to secure fair background conditions against which different cultures can compete for their own survival. On the other hand, it does not limit itself to securing formal opportunities for cultural preservation. It rather 1 University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Corresponding Author: Chiara Cordelli, University of Chicago, 5801 S Ellis Ave, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. Email: cordelli@uchicago.edu 696020PTX XX X 10.1177/0090591717696020Political TheoryReview Symposium review-article 2017