The Crisis of Democratic Pluralism / Progress in Mathematics (PDF)

"Trust in our social fabric and institutions has dramatically eroded in recent years. Collaborative leaders, higher education professionals, publicly engaged scholars, students, and those who care about democracy and civil rights all will benefit from Brendan Sweetman's latest, The Crisis of Democratic Pluralism. What happens to civil liberties, social justice, or even the state itself if all views have equal standing? Sweetman ponders whether we can reasonably disagree when our civil liberties compete, and whether secular or religious views can pass the test of public reason to guide political action. Politics is reimagined-- and freedom newly cast-- when they are informed by beliefs that are reasonably agreeable and can be honestly discussed." -Jill Hernandez, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of Arts and Humanities, Central Washington University, USA

This bookargues that contemporary liberal democracy is reaching a crisis. Brendan Sweetman contends that this crisis arises from a contentious pluralism involving the rise of incommensurable worldviews that emerge out of the absolutizing of freedom over time in a democratic setting. This clash of worldviews is further complicated by a loss of confidence in reason and by the practical failure of public discourse. A contributory factor is the growing worldview of secularism which needs to be distinguished from both the process of secularization and the concept of the secular state. After describing the crisis, and exploring these themes, and also rejecting proposed solutions from recent liberal political theory, Sweetman develops an approach to pluralist disagreement which requires a re-envisioning of the relationship between religion, secularism and politics, and which allows a limited place for all worldviews in the state, including religious worldviews. Engaging with the work of Philip Kitcher, Robert Audi, John Rawls, A.C. Grayling, Martin Luther King, Cécile Laborde, John Stuart Mill, John Locke, and Plato, Sweetman's approach is a formidable innovation in the quest to maintain a free and fair society.