The Liberal Polity: An Inquiry into the Logic of Civil Association

Traditional liberal argument proceeds by building a theory of civil association upon antecedent moral considerations and by focusing almost exclusively on the independent individual, thus ignoring the group-centered nature of social life. Because of these twin commitments, traditional liberal theory has difficulty accommodating the disparate illiberal and non-liberal group presences within the liberal polity.

The purpose of this work is to advance a more comprehensive liberal theory of civil association, one capable of establishing a politics of unity within the polity regardless of the moral, religious, and ideological differences that might be present there.

It does so first by defending civil association in prudential rather than moral terms, and second by shifting the focus of inquiry from the abstract individual to the presence of inter-group conflict within the polity.

A theory of toleration is developed to indicate how tolerance problems between groups should be fairly and justly addressed by the liberal polity.