Liberalism And Its Practice

Liberalism and its Practice brings together leading authorities who provide an excellent insight into the meaning and practice of liberalism. This book explores current debates surrounding liberalism at the end of the twentieth century and what it has to offer in practice. Its focus is two of liberalism's greatest emerging challenges: multiculturalism and states struggling with the transition to democracy. It considers considers the significant tensions that these pressures bring to liberal frameworks and asks what the viable alternatives are.

This collection of papers makes a step towards increased dialogue among philosophical liberals and their theological, sociological and legal critics. The text should be significant for those concerned with the place of religion within a liberal society.

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A central task in contemporary political philosophy is to identify principles governing political life where citizens disagree deeply on important questions of value and, more generally, about the proper ends of life. The distinctively liberal response to this challenge insists that the state should as far as possible avoid relying on such contested issues in its basic structure and deliberations. David McCabe critically surveys influential defenses of the liberal solution and advocates modus vivendi liberalism as an alternative defense of the liberal state. Acknowledging that the modus vivendi approach does not provide the deep moral consensus that many liberals demand, he defends the liberal state as an acceptable compromise among citizens who will continue to see it as less than ideal. His book will interest a wide range of readers in political philosophy and political theory.

In Liberal Epic, Edward Adams examines the liberal imagination’s centuries-long dependence on contradictory, and mutually constitutive, attitudes toward violent domination. Adams centers his ambitious analysis on a series of major epic poems, histories, and historical novels, including Dryden’s Aeneid, Pope’s Iliad, Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Byron’s Don Juan, Scott’s Life of Napoleon, Napier’s History of the War in the Peninsula, Macaulay’s History of England, Hardy’s Dynasts, and Churchill’s military histories—works that rank among the most important publishing events of the past three centuries yet that have seldom received critical attention relative to their importance. In recovering these neglected works and gathering them together as part of a self-conscious literary tradition here defined as liberal epic, Adams provides an archaeology that sheds light on contemporary issues such as the relation of liberalism to war, the tactics for sanitizing heroism, and the appeal of violence to supposedly humane readers. Victorian Literature and Culture Series

In Toward a Liberalism, Richard Flathman shows why and how political theory can contribute to the quality of moral and political practice without violating, as empiricist- and idealist-based theories tend to do, liberal commitments to individuality and plurality. Exploring the tense but inevitable relationship between liberalism and authority, he advances a theory of democratic citizenship tempered by appreciation of the ways in which citizenship is implicated with and augments authority. Flathman examines the relationship of individual rights to freedom on one hand and to authority and power on the other, rejecting the quest for a single homogenous and authoritative liberal theory.

American liberalism has much to be proud of. It is largely responsible for the democratization of political power during the nineteenth century and the harnessing of buccaneer capitalism, for the New Deal's social safety nets and the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. But as the social agenda—and perceived snobbery—of postsixties liberalism alienated the working classes whose interests liberalism had previously championed, "liberal" soon became a dirty word on the political landscape. Noted scholar Thomas Spragens seeks to uncover the animating purposes, changes, problems, and prospects of liberalism as it is understood in today's political discourse. For if liberalism is to regain its rightful standing, he argues, it needs to recover its populist heart-to recommit itself to the ideal of government of, by, and for the people envisioned by Lincoln. Blending political theory with astute analysis of the contemporary scene, Spragens steps back from the "high liberalism" of John Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, and others, arguing instead that the success of liberalism hinges upon its recognition of the limits of social justice and its rededication to the core values of popular self-rule and universal self-realization—especially the capacity of ordinary citizens for personal development through education, occupation, and the practice of politics itself. Spragens first offers a detailed account of the contrast between the older and more recent versions of liberal public philosophy and considers the causes of these political philosophical transformations. He then examines the problematic aspects of contemporary liberalism and provides suggestions for a reoriented social agenda that is more compelling morally and more appealing politically. He concludes by addressing liberals' legitimate concerns about advancing social equality, their worries about imposing values in a pluralistic society, and their fears regarding the possible dangers of self-rule. Forcefully argued and well grounded within recent debates in political philosophy, Getting the Left Right compellingly argues that if twenty-first century liberalism defines its main mission as the egalitarian reallocation of social resources, it will doom itself to political futility and defeat. But if it instead champions the achievement of a society in which all democratic citizens can govern themselves and lead fulfilling lives, it can write a bright new chapter in its illustrious career.

Liberalism: The Basics is an engaging and accessible introduction to liberalism. The author provides a comprehensive overview of liberal practices, liberal values and critically analyses liberal theories, allowing for a richer understanding of liberalism as a whole. The book is divided into three parts: Liberal practices: the rule of law, free speech, freedom of association and movement, economic freedom and sexual freedom. Liberal values: freedom, autonomy, equality, and the universal values of political societies – the communal identity – and well-being of their members. Liberal theories: natural rights, utilitarianism, Kant's rationalism and the contemporary theories of John Rawls and the post-Rawlsians. Presented in a clear and concise way, this book will be an ideal introduction for students and scholars of liberalism, political philosophy, political theory and political ideology.