Multicultural is a plural fact while multiculturalism is a singular governing doctrine.

Evidence

It might be useful to draw a distinction here between “multicultural” and “multiculturalism.” Here multicultural is used adjectivally. It describes the social characteristics and problems of governance posed by any society in which different cultural communities are obliged by historical circumstances to live together and attempt to build a common life while retaining something of their “original” identity. By contrast, “multiculturalism” is substantive. It references the strategies and policies adopted to govern or manage the problems of diversity and multiplicity which multicultural societies throw up. It is usually used in the singular, signifying the distinctive philosophy or doctrine which underpins multicultural strategies. “Multicultural,” however, is, by definition, plural. There are many kinds of multicultural society. The US, Canada, Britain, France, Holland, Bosnia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Africa, and Nigeria all qualify. They are “multicultural” in significantly different ways. However, they all share one characteristic. They are, by definition, culturally heterogeneous. They differ in this respect from liberal-constitutional, “modern,” Western nation-states which are predicated on the (usually unspoken) assumption of cultural homogeneity organized around “universal” liberal-individualist secular values (Goldberg 1994). — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 307

Categorization

• DEFINE: The central analytic distinction of the chapter: multicultural (fact of heterogeneity, plural, adjectival) versus multiculturalism (management strategy, singular, substantive).
• XREF: Connects to Goldberg’s ‘modern Western nation-states predicated on assumed homogeneity’ — directly relevant to how Islamophobia studies critique the nation’s constructed unity.