5 Conclusion
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
The most important outcome of this encounter between pluralism and
liberalism has been a general move to the acceptance of numerous underlying
pluralist assumptions. The reality and value of diVerence and diversity, and
their group origins, have been widely accepted in the theoretical realm. The
argument is not, as it was earlier, between monism and unitary political
theory on the one hand and pluralist theory on the other; rather, the focus is
on how to accommodate pluralist reality in contemporary societies. This has
brought a need forXexibility to liberal politics, and while it makes liberals
interested in universal rules uncomfortable, thatXexibility has been a central
tenet of pluralism from theWrst generation to the present. While some may
not be happy with the resulting uncertainties, conXicts, and endlessly unWn-
ished business, such uncertainty is the stuVof everyday, pragmatic pluralist
politics. Dilemmas of diVerence, group autonomy, inclusion, engagement,
and agonistic relations remain just that: dilemmas.
Is this progress? James may have been prescient when he noted the crum-
bling of the absolute—in the realm of theory. He imagined the pluralist
universe with which political theory is now fully engaged. For Tully ( 1995 ,
186 ), pluralist progress is about ‘‘learning to recognize, converse with and be
mutually accommodating to the culturally diverse neighbors in the city we
inhabit here and now.’’ The argument here is that pluralist theory has indeed
imagined such progress. The larger problem, of course, is that the political
realm itself suVers from a much larger failure of imagination.
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Berlin,I. 1969 .Four Essays on Liberty. London: Oxford.
—— 1990 .The Crooked Timber of Humanity. London: John Murray.
Bohman,J. 2001. Participants, observers, and critics: practical knowledge, social
perspectives, and critical pluralism. InPluralism and the Pragmatic Turn: The
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