In this elegant and incisive book, Michael Walzer draws on everyday political experience to open up some of the theoretical dead-ends in which contemporary democratic theory has become stalled. The book's positive, constructive emphasis will make it useful to anyone interested in issues of social equality.

Distinguished political philosopher Michael Walzer here offers a provocative reappraisal of the core tenets of liberalism. Ranging over such contested issues as multiculturalism, pluralism, difference, civil society, and racial and gender justice, he suggests ways in which liberal theory might be revised to make it more hospitable to the claims of equality.

INTRODUCTION: Liberalism and Inequality

ONE. Involuntary Association

TWO. The Collectivism of Powerlessness

THREE. Cultural Rights

FOUR. Civil Society and the State

FIVE. Deliberation... and What Else？

SIX. Politics and Passion

CONCLUSION: Global Equality

APPENDIX: The Communitarian Critique of Liberalism

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index