Pluralism (political philosophy)

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This article is about pluralism as a political philosophy. For the theory that political power in society does not lie with the electorate but is distributed between a wide number of groups, see Pluralism (political theory). For other uses, see Pluralism (disambiguation).

Pluralism as a political philosophy is the diversity within a political body, which is seen to permit the peaceful coexistence of different interests, convictions, and lifestyles.[1] While not all political pluralists advocate for a pluralist democracy, this is the most common stance, because democracy is often viewed as the most fair and effective way to moderate between discrete values.[2] Political theorist Isaiah Berlin, a strong supporter of pluralism, wrote: "let us have the courage of our admitted ignorance, of our doubts and uncertainties.

At least we can try to discover what others ... require, by ... making it possible for ourselves to know men as they truly are, by listening to them carefully and sympathetically, and understanding them and their lives and their needs... ."[3] Pluralism thus tries to encourage members of society to accommodate their differences by avoiding extremism (adhering solely to one value, or at the very least refusing to recognize others as legitimate) and engaging in good faith dialogue. Pluralists also seek the construction or reform of social institutions in order to reflect and balance competing principles.

One of the more famous arguments for institutional pluralism came from James Madison in The Federalist paper number 10. Madison feared that factionalism would lead to in-fighting in the new American republic and devotes this paper to questioning how best to avoid such an occurrence. He posits that to avoid factionalism, it is best to allow many competing factions (advocating different primary principles) to prevent any one from dominating the political system. This relies, to a degree, on a series of disturbances changing the influences of groups so as to avoid institutional dominance and ensure competition.[citation needed]

Like Edmund Burke, this view concerns itself with balance, and subordinating any single abstract principle to a plurality or realistic harmony of interests. Pluralism recognizes that certain conditions may make good-faith negotiation impossible, and therefore also focuses on what institutional structures can best modify or prevent such a situation. Pluralism advocates institutional design in keeping with a form of pragmatic realism here, with the preliminary adoption of suitable existing socio-historical structures where necessary. One of the problems plaguing any discussion of pluralism is that it is a multi-faceted concept. There are at least four distinct ways in which the term pluralism has been used.[4]

Robert A. Dahl or political liberalism's "reasonable" pluralism, is oriented towards existing diversity of groups, values, and identities competing for political representation. Pluralization, by contrast, names the emergence of new interests, identities, values, and differences raising claims to representation not currently legible within the existing pluralist imaginary.[6]

The common good

Pluralism is connected with the hope that this process of conflict and

Dwight Eisenhower's "middle way" was arguably motivated by a belief in political pluralism.[7]

While advocated by many pluralists, pluralism need not embrace social democracy given it does not

utopian thinking. While some, like John N. Gray, repudiate historical progress altogether, others, like Edmund Burke
, indicate that human progress has occurred, as a function of improved social harmony.

Conditions

For pluralism to function and to be successful in defining the common good, all groups have to agree to a minimal consensus that shared values are at least worth pursuing. The most important baseline value is thus that of mutual respect, understanding or tolerance. If no such dialogue is possible, extremism and physical coercion are likely inevitable.

Notable pluralists (alphabetical)

See also

Wikiquote has quotations related to Pluralism (political philosophy).

Notes

  1. ^ "Theories of American Democracy"
  2. ISBN 080188215X
    .
  3. ^ Cherniss, Joshua; Hardy, Henry (1 January 2016). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
  4. ^ Kazemzadeh, Hamed (Winter 2020). "Hamed Kazemzadeh: Democratic platform in Social Pluralism". Internal Journal of Acpcs (10).
  5. OCLC 133465498
    .
  6. OCLC 57319610
    .
  7. ^ Thomas, Wagner, Steven (1 January 1999). "Pursuing the "middle way": Eisenhower Republicanism, 1952–1964". pp. 1–282.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

References

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