Facing up to civic pluralism

Abstract

Beginning with the publication of Liberal Purposes in 1991, William Galston has developed an appealing theory of liberal pluralism that entails strong commitments to expressive liberty, political pluralism and Berlinian value pluralism. However, given these commitments, Galston might be expected to be more open to a theory of civic pluralism, understood as recognition and toleration of multiple reasonable conceptions of good citizenship, rather than advancing (as he does) a robust but unitary view of citizenship and civic education. This article offers a modest set of arguments on behalf of civic pluralism, based in part on Galston’s own theory of liberal pluralism, in the hope of prompting him to move in this direction.