The Struggle for Inclusion

Reviews / Votes

"The Struggle for Inclusion charts an evidence-based strategy for winning over a potentially inclusive non-Muslim majority in Western European countries. Rather than intervene in an attempt to change attitudes about Muslims, the authors search for hidden tolerant majorities by exploring the conditions under which survey respondents from seven countries express tolerant views. A meticulously crafted series of survey experiments shows how acceptance of Muslims changes, sometimes dramatically, depending on the substantive concerns at issue." -- Donald P. Green, Columbia University "The key point of the book is that we should cease to focus on the intolerant and instead focus on the tolerant who are in favor of including Muslim minorities. In so doing, we should take into account that the terms of inclusion matter for them. In a series of impressive survey experiments, the authors demonstrate this key point in a highly effective manner. Without any doubt, this book makes an important contribution to the literature on attitudes about immigration, tolerance, liberal values, and their political implications." -- Hanspeter Kriesi, European University Institute "Elisabeth Ivarsaten and Paul Sniderman explore the opportunities for inclusion of Muslim minorities into Western democracies. Their book, The Struggle for Inclusion: Muslim Minorities and the Democratic Ethos, integrates social scientific methods with ideas from political theory, sociology, and philosophy to answer complex questions about democracy in practice. They find plenty of opportunities for more expansive forms of inclusion. However, they also explore the limits for inclusion in contemporary Western societies." * Democracy Paradox * "Rigorous yet eminently readable. . . the authors impressively manage to fit into a reasonably slim text (1) a call for a new research agenda, (2) advocacy (and proof of concept) for a novel methodological approach, and (3) nuanced, yet generalizable insights into the bases of support for core liberal democratic norms." * Journal of Church and State *