Modern Pluralism: Anglo-American Debates Since 1880 Hardcover

277 Pages·2012·3.07 MB·English

by  Mark Bevir

Modern Pluralism
Pluralism is among the most vital intellectual movements of the
modern era. Liberal pluralism helped reinforce and promote greater
separation of political and religious spheres. Socialist pluralism pro-
moted the political role of trade unions and the rise of corporatism.
Empirical pluralism helped legitimate the role of interest groups in
democratic government. Today pluralism inspires thinking about key
issues such as multiculturalism and network governance. However,
despite pluralism’s importance, there are no histories of twentieth-
century pluralist thinking. M odern Pluralism i lls this gap. It explores
liberal, socialist, and empirical ideas about diversity in Britain and
the United States. It shows how pluralists challenged homogenous
nations and sovereign states, often promoting sub-national groups as
potential sites of self-government. In it intellectual historians, polit-
ical theorists, and social scientists collectively explore the historical
background to present institutions and debates. The book serves to
enrich our understanding of the history of pluralism and its continu-
ing relevance.
MARK BEVIR is a Professor of Political Science at the University of
California, Berkeley. His publications include T he Making of British
Socialism (2011), D emocratic Governance (2010), and T he Logic of the
History of Ideas (1999).
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Modern Pluralism
Anglo-American Debates Since 1880
Mark B evir

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no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2 012
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Modern pluralism : Anglo-American debates since 1880 / [edited by]
Mark Bevir.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-107-01767-2 (hardback)
1. Liberalism–History–20th century. 2. Cultural pluralism–History–
20th century. I. Bevir, Mark.
JC574.M63 2012
320.51–dc23
2012000287
ISBN 9 78-1-107-01767-2 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in
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or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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Contents
List of contributors page v ii
Acknowledgments viii
1 A history of modern pluralism 1
MARK BEVIR
2 F rom liberal constitutionalism to pluralism 2 1
J ACOB T. LEVY
3 G uild socialism 40
MARC STEARS
4 P luralism and method at the turn of the century 60
A VIGAIL EISENBERG
5 V alue pluralism in twentieth-century
Anglo-American thought 8 1
JAN-WERNER M Ü LLER
6 C orporatism and its discontents: pluralism,
anti-pluralism and Anglo-American industrial
relations, c . 1930–1980 1 05
BEN JACKSON
7 T he rise and fall of the democratic dogma
and the emergence of empirical democratic theory 129
J OHN G. GUNNELL
8 L iberalism, pluralism, multiculturalism:
contemporary debates 154
RUTH ABBEY
9 T he revival of radical pluralism:
associationism and difference 1 79
M ARK BEVIR AND TOBY REINER
v
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vi Contents
1 0 B eyond pluralism? Corporatism, globalization,
and the dilemmas of democratic governance 214
R OBERT ADCOCK AND MARK VAIL
Index 247
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Contributors
RUTH ABBEY : C ardinal O’Hara Professor, Political Science, University
of Notre Dame
ROBERT ADCOCK : Assistant Professor, Political Science, George
Washington University
MARK B EVIR : P rofessor, Political Science, University of California,
Berkeley
A VIGAIL E ISENBERG : Professor, Political Science, University of
Victoria
J OHN G. G UNNELL : E meritus Professor, Political Science, SUNY
Albany
B EN J ACKSON : University Lecturer and Fellow, History, University
College, Oxford
J ACOB T. LEVY : Tomlinson Professor, Political Science, McGill
University
JAN-WERNER M Ü LLER : Professor, Politics, Princeton University
T OBY R EINER : Assistant Professor, Political Science, Dickinson
College
M ARC S TEARS : P rofessor and Fellow, Politics, University College,
Oxford
MARK VAIL : A ssociate Professor, Political Science, Tulane University
vii
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Acknowledgments
Modern Pluralism derives from a conference that I organized at the
University of California, Berkeley in October 2009. For their gener-
ous support of that conference, I thank the Center for British Studies
and the Institute of Governmental Studies at Berkeley. For superb
administrative support, I am grateful above all to Candace Groskreutz.
I also thank all those who contributed so much to our discussions at
the conference: Clare Chambers, Kinch Hoekstra, Phil Parvin, Sarah
Song, and James Vernon.

viii
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Modern Pluralism
Anglo-American Debates Since 1880
Edited by Mark Bevir
Book DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084451
Online ISBN: 9781139084451
Hardback ISBN: 9781107017672
Chapter
1 - A history of modern pluralism pp. 1-20
Chapter DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139084451.001
Cambridge University Press
1 A history of modern pluralism
Mark Bevir
Pluralism may appear to be on the rise. Many societies are being trans-
formed by a plurality of cultural groups, each with different and per-
haps legitimate norms. Many states are being transformed by the n ew
governance with its plurality of organizations working in all kinds of
overlapping legal and regulatory frameworks. These social and political
trends mean that pluralist issues are prominent in many contempor-
ary debates about public policy. For a start, the increasingly diverse
nature of many societies has inspired various discussions about multi-
culturalism. 1 What are the social and political implications of cultural
diversity? Do we need to rethink our morality and even our laws to
respond to cultural pluralism? In addition, the changing nature of the
state has inspired various debates about governance. 2 Has the state been
hollowed-out, supplemented or supplanted by a patchwork of public,
private, and voluntary organizations formulating policy and delivering
services through markets and networks? What are the implications of
this new governance for accountability and other democratic values?
Given the prominence of pluralist issues in contemporary public
debates, it is not surprising that recent years have seen an upsurge of
scholarly interest in the history and prospects of political pluralism.
Recent works on the history of modern pluralism have concentrated
on its rise in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 3 Recent
1 D. Goldberg, ed., Multiculturalism: A Critical Reader (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994).
2 M. Bevir, ed., The SAGE Handbook of Governance (London: SAGE, 2011).
3 J. Bartelson, The Critique of the State (Cambridge University Press, 2001); A. Eisenberg,
Reconstructing Political Pluralism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995); J. Gunnell, I magining
the American Polity: Political Science and the Discourse of Democracy (University Park:
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004); C. Laborde, P luralist Thought and the
State in Britain and France, 1900 –2 5 (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000); C. Nicholls,
Pluralist State: The Political Ideas of J. N. Figgis and His Contemporaries (Basingstoke:
Macmillan, 1994); D. Runciman, Pluralism and the Personality of the State (Cambridge
University Press, 2005); and M. Stears, P rogressives, Pluralists, and the Problems of the
State: Ideologies of Reform in the United States and Britain, 1909 – 1926 (Oxford University
Press, 2006).
1
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