LIBERALISM IN PROGRESS-FROM EQUAL RIGHTS TO GLOBAL PARTICIPATION

Michael Walzer defends a political liberalism that upholds the right to share in substantive goods as well as to enjoy civil liberties, and that supports the value and rights of particular ethnic, cultural, and religious communities. But Walzer tends to see the political sphere as one in which conflict continually threatens, and particular commitments must be suppressed or constrained. I propose what might be termed a "progressive" politics, in which particular identities and relationships are appreciated as the bases of meaningful social agency, and in which particular communities come together around problems of mutual concern to establish common ground and working relationships in a participatory democracy.