Democratic Procedures and Liberal Consensus

Liberal theory seeks agreement on political principles in spite of the moral, religious, and philosophical diversity of contemporary societies. Democratic Procedures and Liberal Consensus breaks new ground in developing principles from research on liberal citizen's attitudes towards rights and liberties, distributive justice, and religious beliefs. Because liberal citizens do not generally accept strong individual rights or strongly egalitarian principles of distributive justice, the principles of liberal consensus must be based on almost universal support for democratic political systems and democracy as a value. The details of central liberal principles, including those bearing on democracy itself, must be worked out by appropriate democratic procedures.

Table of Contents:
1: Liberal Commitments 2: Theoretical Foundations 3: Democratic Values 4: Religion and Democratic Values 5: Support for Democratic Procedures 6: Distributive Justice 7: Rawl's Political Constructivism and Democratic Values 8: Procedural Justice Conclusion Appendix Bibliography Index

Review :
`Review from previous edition Klosko's argument is throughout careful and lucid.' Political Studies `These studies and arguments... should generate attention and controversy. The controversy has the promise of producing real illumination and improvement in our theories of pluralistic liberal democracy, since they should challenge adherents of the dominant version of political liberalism to confront and improve and/or revise their account of a well-ordered democratic society. ' Political Theory `This study overall sets a fine example of how normative political theory might in particular, and must in general, engage with the messy facts of the real world, a world whose citizens are not the ideal deliberators nor completely reasonable individuals an idealized liberalism would wish them to be.' Philosophy `Klosko's work does a wonderful job of starting to fill the empirical vacuum in which normative theory proceeds, thus opening the door for the subsequent justification of empirically astute accounts of liberal justification.' Journal of Politics `Klosko's book is informed by both political philosophy and empirical work on religion... It is a most welcome and admirable contribution.' Ethics `Provides an excellent example of political theorizing worthy of emulation. Klosko should be applauded for providing a study that is not only engaging and insightful, but also original and a valuable contribution to both the existing literature concerning the character of a viable conception of political liberalism and, more generally, the ongoing debate surrounding the nature of an appropriate conception of justice for contemporary pluralistic studies.' European Journal of Political Theory