Sergi Morales-Gálvez (Universitat de València): Authority and Linguistic Domination

The idea of this paper is to explore the potential of normative theories of federalism to address the problem of linguistic domination and authority at the state level. I want to show how federalism can be substantially required for a theory of linguistic justice concerned with avoiding the problem of linguistic domination. In recent years, the political philosophy of federalism has undergone a ‘multinational’ turn, and many of these theories have (largely unexplored) implications for linguistic justice. The paper proceeds as follows. First, I expose the problem of linguistic domination within the linguistic justice literature and why it is problematic and requires a solution focused on how authority is distributed in a given society. All societies require language(s) as an expressive/identity and instrumental medium to organise themselves as political communities, so when language diversity and conflict is at stake it is highly important to take it in consideration. Then I engage with normative theories of federalism, as a literature concerned with authority questions, and how this might be useful for questions of language and, particularly, of linguistic domination. However, it is widely accepted in the normative federalist literature that there are different interpretations of this ideal: territorial and multinational federalism. So I develop an analysis and comparison of both territorial federalism and multinational federalism. Finally, I offer arguments stating why only multinational interpretations of federalism are substantially consistent with linguistic justice as non-linguistic domination. These arguments are two: the boundary argument and the difference argument. All in all, I defend the idea that multinational theories of federalism are substantially required to avoid linguistic domination.