Toward an Overlapping Dissensus

Abstract

This article explores the connection between political theory and political commentary in the editorial stance of Dissent magazine’s staff, especially Irving Howe, Lewis Coser, and Michael Walzer. It argues that central to the political thought of the Dissent circle was a rejection of ideological Puritanism on the American left. Dissent’s theoretical contribution was to develop a space for a policy-oriented social democratic platform that draws on both liberalism and communism while transforming them. Thus, Howe sought a socialism that drew on valuable liberal insights, while Walzer looked for a permanent uneasy coexistence between social democracy, liberalism, and communitarianism.