William A. Galston

William Arthur Galston

The Implications of Value Pluralism for Political Theory and Practice

Liberal Pluralism

A major contribution to the current theory of liberalism by an eminent political theorist challenges the views of such theorists as Rawls, Dworkin, and Ackerman, who believe that the essence of liberalism is neutrality.

Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State

Liberal Purposes

The Great Recession, institutional dysfunction, a growing divide between urban and rural prospects, and failed efforts to effectively address immigration have paved the way for a populist backlash that disrupts the postwar bargain between political elites and citizens. Whether today’s populism represents a corrective to unfair and obsolete policies or a threat to liberal democracy itself remains up for debate. Yet this much is clear: these challenges indict the triumphalism that accompanied liberal democratic consolidation after the collapse of the Soviet Union. To respond to today’s crisis, good leaders must strive for inclusive economic growth while addressing fraught social and cultural issues, including demographic anxiety, with frank attention. Although reforms may stem the populist tide, liberal democratic life will always leave some citizens unsatisfied. This is a permanent source of vulnerability, but liberal democracy will endure so long as citizens believe it is worth fighting for.

The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy

Anti-Pluralism

John W. Chapman

In the United States, there exists increasing uneasiness about the predominance of self-interest in both public and private life, growing fear about the fragmentation and privatization of American society, mounting concerns about the effects of institutions—ranging from families to schools to the media—on the character of young people, and a renewed tendency to believe that without certain traditional virtues neither public leaders nor public policies are likely to succeed. In this thirty-fourth volume in The American Society of Legal and Political Philosophy, a distinguished group of international scholars from a range of disciplines examines what is meant by virtue, analyzing various historical and analytical meanings of virtue, notions of liberal virtue, civic virtue, and judicial virtue, and the nature of secular and theological virtue. The contributors include: Jean Baechler (University of Paris-Sorbonne), Annette C. Baier (University of Pittsburgh), Ronald Beiner (University of Toronto), Christopher J. Berry (University of Glasgow), J. Budziszweski (University of Texas), Charles Larmore (Columbia University), David Luban (University of Maryland), Stephen Macedo (Harvard University), Michael J. Perry (Northwestern University), Terry Pinkard (Georgetown University), Jonathan Riley (Tulane University), George Sher (University of Vermont), Judith N. Shklar (Harvard University), Rogers M. Smith (Yale University), David A. Strauss (University of Chicago), and Joan C. Williams (American University).

Nomos XXXIV

Virtue

Peter H. Hoffenberg

This multi-authored book explores the ways that many influential ethical traditions - secular and religious, Western and non-Western - wrestle with the moral dimensions of poverty and the needs of the poor. These traditions include Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, among the religious perspectives; classical liberalism, feminism, liberal-egalitarianism, and Marxism, among the secular; and natural law, which might be claimed by both. The basic questions addressed by each of these traditions are linked to several overarching themes: what poverty is, the particular vulnerabilities of high-risk groups, responsibility for the occurrence of poverty, preferred remedies, how responsibility for its alleviation is distributed, and priorities in the delivery of assistance. This volume features an introduction to the types, scope, and causes of poverty in the modern world and concludes with Michael Walzer's broadly conceived commentary, which provides a direct comparison of the presented views and makes suggestions for further study and policy.

William A. Galston

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