Ethnopluralism, sometimes called ethno-differentialism, is a Nouvelle Droite concept which relies on preserving and mutually respecting separate and bordered ethno-cultural regions. Among the key components are the "right to difference" and a strong support for cultural diversity at a worldwide rather than at a national level. According to its promoters, significant foreign cultural elements in a given region ought to be culturally assimilated to seek cultural homogenization in this territory, in order to let different cultures thrive in their respective geographical areas. Proponents describe ethnopluralism as a "world in which many worlds can fit" and an alternative to multiculturalism and globalization, claiming that it strives to keep the world's different cultures alive by embracing their uniqueness and avoiding a one world doctrine in which every region is culturally identical. Critics view the project as a form of "global apartheid", and scholars have highlighted close ideological similarities with concepts promoted by French neo-fascist activists in the 1950s. The concept is closely associated the European New Right, the Identitarian movement, and French political theoristAlain de Benoist.
Origin
According to ethnographer Benjamin R. Teitelbaum, the term "ethnopluralism" was first coined by German sociologist Henning Eichberg in a 1973 essay that was written in opposition to both Western and Europeaneurocentrism. The concept of ethno-pluralism promoted from the 1970s onward by GRECE, an ethno-nationalistthink thank led by Nouvelle Droite thinker Alain de Benoist, was foreshadowed by ideas expressed in the 1950s by French neo-fascist activist René Binet. "Biological realism", a concept coined by Binet in 1950, advocated the establishment of individual and racial inequalities founded upon scientific observations. He argued that "interbreeding capitalism" aimed at creating a "uniform barbary", and that only "a true socialism" could "achieve race liberation" through the "absolute segregation at both global and national level." In the 1960s, white nationalistmagazineEurope-Action, in which Alain de Benoist was a journalist, also drew influence from the so-called "Message of Uppsala", a text likely wrote in 1958 by French neo-fascists related to the New European Order led by Binet. It carried out subtle semantic shifts between "differentialism" and "inequality" which are deemed influential on European far-right movements at large.
Concept
Ethnopluralism has been proposed by Nouvelle Droite thinkers–and by European New Right activists at large–as a mean to facilitate the continuity of independent ethno-cultural societies. This idea tends to utilize cultural assimilation of foreign cultural norms in order to preserve the inherent forms and resemblances of an ethno-culture. The concept emphasizes the separation of varying ethno-cultural groups, in contrast to cultural integration and intra-cultural diversity. It has been part of the ideological foundation of the European New Right, which has used ethnopluralism to show its favoritism towards the cultural identity of individual groups, thus expressing its opposition to cultural heterogeneity within nation states. These views on culture, ethnicity and race have become popular among several right-wing and far-right groups in Europe since the 1970s, and has also been covered in some New Left sources like Telos.
Plasticity
The difficulty of defining clearly the concept lies in the fact that its proponents can oscillate between an ethnic and a cultural definition of the notion of "difference". Alain de Benoist had for instance supported an ethno-biological perspective in the 1960s, and had endorsed South African apartheid in the same decade. He has however gradually adopted a more dual approach in his writings. Inspired by Martin Buber’s philosophy of dialogue and Ich und Du concept, de Benoist defined "identity" as a "dialogical" phenomenon in We and the Others. According to him, one's identity is made of two components: the "objective part" that comes from one’s background, and the "subjective part", freely chosen by the individual. Identity is therefore a process in constant evolution, rather than an immutable notion. In 1992, he consequently dismissed the Front National use of ethnopluralism, on the grounds that it portrayed "difference as an absolute, whereas, by definition, it exists only relationally." Guillaume Faye took the opposite direction. Arguing in 1979 that immigration, rather than immigrants, should be combated in order to preserve cultural and biological "identities" on both sides of the Mediterranean Sea, he later preached "total ethnic war" between "original" Europeans and Muslims in his 2000 book The Colonization of Europe. Ethnopluralists indeed use the concept of "cultural differentialism" to assert a "right to difference", and propose regional policies of ethnic and racial separatism. But there is no agreement among them upon the definition of group membership, nor where these hypothetical borders would lie. Some of them advocate limiting Europe to "true Europeans", while others propose much smaller divisions, similar to an ethnically-based communitarianism. French Nouvelle Droite philosopher Alain de Benoist claims that indigenous cultures in Europe are being threatened, and that pan-European nationalism based on ethnopluralism would stop this process. He has proposed ethnic and social territories should be as small as possible, such that Muslims would be allowed "ghettos" subordinated to sharia within the European continent.
Critics
According to historian Rasmus Fleischer, Jews and Roma are implicitly absent from the ethnopluralist world map because, in the vision of "multi-fascists", both minorities should be "eliminated in order to make room for a peaceful utopia."
