Introduction

At the end of the 1970s, the conception of the state as a nation-state began to undergo a profound revision. This affected political theory, institutional policies and arrangements for the territorial division of power. A perception of the state as a monocultural and uninational entity, which gave rise to political centralism, a uniformist interpretation of federalism and assimilation policies for immigrants, underwent a number of important changes. One example of these was the experiments in multinational federalism that took place in Canada, Belgium and Spain. These facilitated the recognition of the pluralities of culture, language and identity of the different national minorities within these countries. After Canada took the first step in 1971, there followed an explosion of multiculturalist public policies. The scope and political orientation of these policies has been quite different in New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. However, in all cases they have resulted in a greater tolerance and recognition for the cultures of immigrants and other ethnic, cultural and religious groups.