Multiculturalism and the willingness of citizens to defer to law and to legal authorities

A key problem in trying to manage diverse societies is finding social polic ies that will be acceptable to all individuals and groups. Studies suggest that this problem may not be as intractable as is often believed, since peo ple's acceptance of policies is shaped to an important degree by the fairne ss of the procedures used by authorities to make policy. When policies are fairly made, they gain. widespread support, even among those who may feel t hat the consequences of the policy for them or their group are undesirable or even unfair. These findings support an optimistic view of the ability of authorities to manage diverse societies. On the other hand, research sugge sts that the ability of procedural justice to bridge differences among indi viduals and groups may not be equally strong under all conditions. People's willingness to accept policies is more influenced by procedural justice ju dgments when they identify with the society that the authorities represent and view them as representing a group of which they are members. They are l ess influenced by Procedural justice judgments when they identify more stro ngly with subgroups than with society and/or view the authorities as repres entatives of a group to which they do not belong.