Developments in contemporary pluralism
Despite almost a century of empirical and theoretical critiques of pluralism, the pluralist tradition remains strong. It has reinvigorated itself over the past decade in a range of fields, each drawing on different parts of the pluralist tradition.
Pluralism’s strength derives from its normative appeal and the fact that much of it accords with our intuitive sense of liberal democracy. In addition, the critics of pluralism, in particular Marxism and elitism, have in the case of the former been discredited, or the latter have either not developed or become incorporated into different elements of pluralist thought (see Chapters 2 and 3).There are four main ways that pluralism has developed in contemporary political science. Notions of governance have developed out of post-war American pluralism. Interests in social capital and civil society have drawn on themes highlighted by the early American pluralists. Similarly notions of associational democracy and radical democracy have explicitly borrowed from the early English pluralists and the anarchist strands found in French pluralism (Laborde 2000). Finally, the development of multiculturalism can be linked back to what Nichols (1974) calls the plural society literature. We will now examine each of these developments.
More on the topic Developments in contemporary pluralism:
- Developments in British pluralism
- Recent developments in state theory
- The rise of American pluralism
- The roots of pluralism
- The reformulation of pluralism
- Contemporary elitist approaches
- 1. Permission in contemporary legal theory
- Chapter 1 Pluralism
- CHAPTER 10 Tales and Images of the Battlefield in Contemporary Warfare
- The discussion about principles in contemporary legal theory: How it all started
- Myths are part and parcel of contemporary international politics,
- Legal Pluralism and the Roman Empires
- CHAPTER 7 Warlords and States: A Contemporary Myth of the International System