Dealing with Diversity A study in Contemporary Liberalism Religion and Democracy Series

Contemporary liberal societies are marked by a certain degree of diversity indicated by coexistence of multiple ideas, doctrines, beliefs and cultural practices. But a complex and differentiated tradition of political thought like liberalism, despite its fundamental reliance on values like autonomy and toleration, adheres minimally to the principle of diversity. The triumphant position of the liberal individual dwarfs the chance of letting diversified existences fit within its boundary. However, in the face of the general depiction of liberalism as an ideology intending to guarantee creation of basic values like peace, pluralism, equality, diversity becomes a fact "that should be faced". Thus, the author in this volume works out an exhaustive theoretical classification of liberalism into comprehensive pro-autonomy, pro-toleration, political pro-autonomy, and political pro-toleration. With a detailed discussion on the different definitions of liberalism, the author conceptualises a normative framework, for liberalism to deal with the existence of the concept of diversity. The book thus presents a comprehensive account of critical evaluation of these four variants of liberalism with regard to diversity and their ability to deal with diversity in a proper way.

Dr. Domenico Melidoro is Lecturer at the Department of Political Science at LUISS University of Rome