Liberal Pluralism_ A Reply to Talisse.pdf

Liberal Pluralism: A Reply to Talisse William Galston School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland, Van Munching Hall, College Park, USA. E-mail: bgalston@ Liberal pluralism is a comprehensive account and justification of liberal democracy that rests on three premises: an account of the structure of morality (value pluralism); an account of the structure of political life (political pluralism); and an account of action oriented toward a conception of the good (expressive liberty). In a critique, Robert Talisse contends that no coherent path can lead from value pluralism to the justification of liberalism. The only coherent options are to: (a) affirm value pluralism while denying the general validity of liberalism; (b) offer a general justification of liberalism based on non-pluralist premises; or (c) acknowl- edge that the justification of liberalism can only be ‘political’ (in Rawls’s sense) rather than comprehensive. In response, I defend the coherence of a justification of liberalism that incorporates value pluralism as a key premise. Contemporary Political Theory (2004) 3, 140–147. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cpt.9300148 Keywords: value pluralism; liberalism; liberal pluralism What Liberalism Pluralism Is We often use the phrase ‘liberal democracy’, but we don’t always think about it very carefully. The noun points to a particular structure of politics in which decisions are made, directly or indirectly, by the people as a whole; and more broadly, to an understanding of politics in which all legitimate power flows from the people. The adjective points to a particular understanding of the scope of politics, in which the domain of legitimate political decision-making is seen as inherently limited. Liberal governance acknowledges that important spheres of human life are wholly or partly outside the purview of political power. It stands as a barrier against all forms of total power, including the power of democratic majorities. The question then arises as to how are we