This superbly edited volume addresses central questions surrounding the liberal democratic theory of the state. Both the advocates of contemporary expressions of liberal democratic theory and critics of those formulations receive a fair hearing. Excellent discussions of the values of liberty, justice, equality, individual rights, and democratic choice are included as well as timely discussions of pluralism and the treatment of groups in democratic theory. Norman E. Bowie, University of Minnesota
Robert L. Simon is Professor of Philosophy at Hamilton College. He is author of numerous articles in social and political philosophy as well as Fair Play (1991) and Neutrality and the Academic Ethic (1994), and co-author of The Individual and the Political Order, (third edition, 1998). He is currently working on issues in discourse ethics and on the ethics of competition in athletics, and is a past president of the International Association of the Philosophy of Sport.
Notes on Contributors ix
Introduction: Social and Political Philosophy - Sorting Out the Issues 1
Robert L. Simon
Part I Core Principles and the Liberal Democratic State
1 Political Obligation and Authority 17
A. John Simmons
2 Liberty, Coercion, and the Limits of the State 38
Alan Wertheimer
3 Justice 60
Christopher Heath Wellman
4 Equality 85
Richard J. Arneson
5 Preference, Rationality, and Democratic Theory 106
Ann E. Cudd
Part II Liberalism, Its Critics, and Alternative Approaches
6 Marx's Legacy 131
Richard W. Miller
7 Feminism and Political Theory 154
Virginia Held
8 Liberalism and the Challenge of Communitarianism 177
James P. Sterba
9 Liberal Theories and their Critics 197
William Nelson
Part III Pluralism, Diversity, and Deliberation
10 Deliberative Democracy 221
James S. Fishkin
11 Citizenship and Pluralism 239
Daniel M. Weinstock
12 The New Enlightenment: Critical Reflections on the Political Significance of Race 271
A. Todd Franklin
13 Religion and Liberal Democracy 292
Christopher J. Eberle
Select Bibliography 319
Index 321