Diversity and Democratic Politics: An Introduction ALLISON HARELL Queen’s University DIETLIND STOLLE McGill University In recent years, concerns about immigration, increasing numbers of ref- ugees and asylum seekers, and the growing visibility of ethnic and racial minorities have triggered an expanding debate about the consequences of diversity for community and social cohesion in liberal democracies ~see, for example, Banting and Kymlicka, 2006; Putnam 2007!. Journal- ists, policy makers and ideologues have repeatedly expressed their fears of increasingly complex and multiethnic societies and the impact they may have on democratic politics and social relations. Some have even gone as far as warning that the solidarity necessary to maintaining our modern universal welfare states will simply crumble when facing demands from many different ethnic groups ~Goodhart, 2004!. In a recent referen- dum, the majority of Swiss citizens agreed with the campaign of the Swiss People’s Party, which warned about the increasing spread and dominance of the Muslim religion and thus voted to ban the further building of minarets in the country. 1 Moreover, several European countries recently experienced civil unrest as racialized poverty exploded into protests and riots. These riots are largely viewed as a reaction to the mixture of social exclusion, discrimination and Islamophobia faced by ethno-racial minor- ities in these societies ~Murray, 2006!. Indeed, the acceptance of cul- tural diversity is relatively limited across Europe and the rise of far right parties in some European countries has been partly fuelled by Acknowledgments: We would like to thank all of the participants at the 2009 “Diver- sity and Democratic Politics” workshop for helpful comments on earlier drafts of the articles included in this issue.The workshop was held at Queen’s University, May 7 and 8, 2009. Allison Harell, 138 Union Street, School of Policy Studies, Queen’s University, King- ston, ON Kl& 3N6, harell@queensu.ca. Dietlind Stolle, 855 rue Sherbrooke Ouest, Department of Political Science, McGill University, Montreal, QC H3A 2T7, dietlind.stolle@mcgill.ca. Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue canadienne de science politique 43:2 (June/juin 2010) 235–256 doi:10.10170S000842391000003X © 2010 Canadian Political Science Association ~l’Association canadienne de science politique! and0et la Société québécoise de science politique