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Liberalism and diversity. (Review).(Liberal Pluralism: The Implications of Value Pluralism for Political Theory and Practice? )-

Article Excerpt
WILLIAM Galston, a professor at the University of Maryland and a former advisor to President Clinton, has for many years staunchly defended liberal democracy against its critics. Since most Americans, whether Republican or Democrat, are "small-1" liberals in Galston's sense--believing in a limited state that allows individuals and groups to pursue their own ideas of a good life--against whom is he arguing in his latest book, Liberal Pluralism: The Implications of Value Pluralism for Political Theory and Practice? +

For starters, against other philosophers who have different views about what principles should underlie a decent state, and even more against those who pursue policies that attempt to narrow unduly the scope of human expression. His interlocutors range from neo-Aristotelians who are preoccupied with defining the good life to John Rawls and his egalitarian defense of democracy. Against these views, Galston defends diversity as a cornerstone of the liberal state--not the diversity supported by advocates of group politics and racial or sexual quotas, but a broader kind encompassing the full range of human experience.

His defense of diversity makes Galston a critic of a widely accepted belief that a democratic government must place the highest value on individual autonomy or self-direction. Many readers will not see much difference between these two views of liberalism, assuming that diversity...