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Philosophy Political

The Culturalist Challenge to Liberal Republicanism

by (author) Michael Lusztig

Publisher
McGill-Queen's University Press
Initial publish date
Sep 2017
Category
Political, Nationalism, Democracy
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780773551046
    Publish Date
    Sep 2017
    List Price
    $110.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780773551053
    Publish Date
    Sep 2017
    List Price
    $40.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780773551718
    Publish Date
    Sep 2017
    List Price
    $40.95

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Description

It is tempting to think of liberal democracy in terms of immortality. Democracies have survived wars and depressions, Nazis and communists – so much so that at the end of the Cold War Francis Fukuyama famously declared the “end of history.” In The Culturalist Challenge to Liberal Republicanism, Michael Lusztig assesses the risks that multiculturalism and other forms of culturalism pose to liberal democracy. Establishing the nature of the current regime and exploring the emergence of a cogent theory of justice grounded in both liberal and republican theory, Lusztig demonstrates the inconsistencies between liberal republicanism and culturalist theories of justice. Exploring both the institutional and cultural effects of the tension between culturalism and liberal republicanism, he seeks a balanced view that falls somewhere between Fukuyama’s optimism for regime mortality and the pessimism inherent in the work of more conservative theorists like Samuel Huntington. Lusztig concludes that the narrowness of liberal republican justice is ameliorated by multiculturalism, but the hidden danger is that multiculturalism can serve as a stalking horse for more pernicious agendas. Given the increasing cultural diversity faced by North American and European nations, The Culturalist Challenge to Liberal Republicanism has important implications for political stability in the twenty-first century.

About the author

Michael Lusztig is professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

Michael Lusztig's profile page

Editorial Reviews

“In The Culturalist Challenge to Liberal Republicanism, Michael Lusztig provides an impressive, fair, and eloquent defence of liberal republicanism that synthesizes a wide range of sources in the history of political ideas and the social sciences.” John von Heyking, University of Lethbridge

"Lustzig's book offers a liberal republican theory of justice that involves reconciling four differing sets of values (equality, liberty, obligation, and purpose), and it evaluates the threats from four types of culturalism. Highly recommended." Choice