1

Introduction:
What is Liberalism?

Liberalism is a precarious achievement of enduring value.

This important legacy of both European history and philoso-
phy – what we sometimes like to abbreviate imprecisely as
the Enlightenment – is not simply of local significance to
the Atlantic democracies and their close relatives such as
Australia and New Zealand. It has a scope and resonance
that continues to inspire political emancipation both within
Europe and far beyond. Furthermore, it is an achievement
that is not subject to the increasingly commonplace charges
of philosophical confusion, reductionist individualism, politi-
cal naivete and irrelevance, or cultural imperialism, or, at
least, that is what I contend in what follows. This book offers
a restatement and defence of liberalism as a theory about the
proper limits to the exercise of political power and about
the scope of just political action. Yet liberalism is ubiquitous
in both the academy and the public realm, so much so that
it is often presented as a hegemonic ideology or intellectual
orthodoxy, so why do we need another defence of liberalism?
In answering this simple question we open up issues that take
us to the heart of the problem of liberalism as an ideology,
political movement or approach to normative political
theory. The short answer to this question is that most current
books on the subject tend to bury liberalism rather than
praise it (or at least defend it).1
Historians of political thought or ideology often weave
complex and interesting tales, attempting to combine ideo-
2 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

logy, political movements and philosophical position into a

coherent whole. Such narratives are always deeply unsatis-
factory to someone. Just as Marxists always tend to dismiss
characterizations of Marxism as incomplete, partial or dis-
torting, so liberals are equally prone to dispute any attempt
to get to the core of what liberalism is really about. So any
book that sets out to defend liberalism is bound to face the
charge that it offers a distortion, caricature or incomplete
picture, that when looked at from another angle shows pre-
cisely the opposite of what is depicted. As with many con-
temporary political concepts and ideologies, liberalism is a
deeply contested notion, not least among liberals themselves.
A proper history of liberalism would have to try and disen-
tangle the central components of this contested tradition or
ideological form. Fortunately I am not concerned with offer-
ing the history of liberalism as a single ideological form. For
a variety of reasons, which are not central to my argument
in this book, I do not think such a single history is possible.
There is a variety of different national stories that one could
tell about liberalism in different countries. Each of these
histories emphasizes different concepts, key thinkers and
political developments. All of these different national stories
are interesting and enhance our understanding of the
resources and influences of a complex set of political tradi-
tions and arguments. I draw on some of this material selec-
tively in what follows. However, I do not wish to claim that
there is a single, true core vision of liberalism. Nor am I con-
cerned with providing a historical account of liberalism as
such, although history will play some part in the account of
liberalism I present.
Establishing the identity of any historical tradition or
ideology is no simple task, if it is even a coherent enterprise.
Many contemporary historians of political ideas warn us that
ideologies are not really the kinds of things that serious his-
torians should be concerned with.2 Mindful of this warning
and also aware of the need to avoid similar philosophical pit-
falls, I claim no more than that the subject of this book is
one among a variety of approaches that one can call liberal-
ism.3 I am concerned with liberalism as a normative political
theory, or what with more precision might be called
political liberalism. Political liberalism is a branch of the
 Introduction: What is Liberalism? 3

broader liberal tradition that places liberal-egalitarianism dis-

tributive principles at its core. It is political for the reason
that it is intended to accommodate the plurality of different
views about how individuals should live their lives. It does
not offer a full theory of personal morality, but instead places
limits on the variety of moral and political perspectives that
are found in modern democratic societies. These limits are
determined by its core normative commitment to the equal
status and treatment of each person. Forms of life or third-
person moral claims (how I think others should live) are
acceptable as public reasons only as long as they are com-
patible with the recognition of the equal status of others. I
can argue for and campaign for my views about how others
should live, but I cannot use the power of the state to bring
them around to my views. Political liberalism involves the
recognition of equal status and what is often referred to as
the strategy of privatization. That is the recognition of the
need to make controversial moral, political and religious
views a matter of private concern, rather than a source of
public political conflict. It is important to note, at this point,
that political liberalism does not entail moral scepticism.
Political liberalism is a moralized political theory; it derives
from a recognition of the equal moral worth and standing of
all individuals, but it also claims that this view places limits
on the scope of moral claims given the fact of reasonable plu-
ralism of moral views in modern democratic societies.
I do not claim that this is all there is to liberalism, nor do
I claim that the history of liberalism as a political movement
inevitably culminates in contemporary liberal egalitarianism.
I wish that were so but it is not. What I am offering here is
not a history of the inevitable unfolding of the true charac-
ter of liberalism. For some, what I defend here will be seen
as only a partial offshoot of the liberal family, or even a per-
version of classical liberalism. It is merely the current fashion
of contemporary political theory since the publication of John
Rawls’ A Theory of Justice in 1971. One might argue that an
alternative ‘epistemological’ variant of liberalism, associated
with the names of Hayek and Popper, is much closer to the
older tradition of classical liberalism, stretching back to the
nineteenth century. This epistemological liberalism is still
very much alive, although it has indeed been partially eclipsed
4 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

by Rawlsian political liberalism. However one characterizes

liberalism, certain major figures will command attention. I
could have told a story that places J. S. Mill, Friedrich Hayek,
or Karl Popper at centre stage. Instead, as will soon become
clear, my story places John Rawls at centre stage. Alongside
Rawls, I also draw on the ideas of Ronald Dworkin and Brian
Barry, both of whom develop and extend the Rawlsian legacy.
This might be seen to give a peculiarly North American
flavour to my account of liberalism. Indeed, some commen-
tators, such as John Gray, have argued that Rawls’ legacy has
had the negative effect of crowding out other important
voices from European liberalism.4 While there is something
to Gray’s charge, it remains a distortion to see Rawls’ legacy
as narrowly north American. Instead the model of liberal
egalitarianism he develops is deeply rooted in the European
tradition and, perhaps most interestingly, British moral and
political theory.
Given all these reasons, it is important to acknowledge that
any single interpretation of a complex historical tradition of
thought and practice will remain deeply contested. For this
reason I want to lower my claims for the variant of liberal-
ism I shall discuss in the rest of this book. Yet I do not want
to say that it is merely a contingency of personal taste or
prejudice that has made me focus on the political liberalism
of Rawls and his followers, rather than the epistemological
liberalism of Hayek or Popper. My reasons for focusing on
political liberalism are not its historical inevitability, but
rather its current political and philosophical significance,
which for good or ill cannot be seriously doubted. Whatever
its ultimate provenance, liberal egalitarianism remains, in my
view, that within the liberal tradition that is most attractive,
compelling and least subject to the charge of redundancy. Its
appropriateness to the modern democratic state is part of the
reason for its hold on the imagination of political theorists in
the anglophone world. Whether this connection with the
modern democratic state makes the liberal perspective ‘the
only game in town’, the end of history, or merely a contin-
gency that is in the process of giving way to less state-centred
forms of political association, is a highly contested topic and
one I shall be concerned with in the final section of this book.5
That said, in a world in which fear of external threats, real
 Introduction: What is Liberalism? 5

or imagined, has put all other political issues on hold, it is

more important than ever to recover and restate the principles
that derive from liberal egalitarianism and to free ourselves
from the corrosive effects of the spurious elevation of com-
munity, culture, and majority public opinion over the claims
for the equal moral standing of all individuals, whoever they
are and wherever they come from.
The conception of liberalism I describe and defend in this
book is unfortunately not widely credited in the real world
of contemporary democratic politics. Indeed, it has become
increasingly fashionable to disparage it. All too frequently,
the popular US practice of using the term ‘liberal’ as a form
of political abuse is adopted by both the press and so-called
left-of-centre politicians, even in Britain. It is also a common
practice, amongst those who should know better, to dismiss
concerns about the curtailment of civil liberties as merely the
hand-wringing of ‘bleeding heart’ liberals. What is most dis-
turbing about these responses is that they are not merely the
knee-jerk reactions of right-wing commentators and conser-
vative politicians, but are increasingly commonplace amongst
those on the left. Yet the liberal egalitarianism they criticize
or dismiss is the only adequate principled response that those
on the left have to the tyranny of majority opinion and the
coercive imposition of arbitrary power. If it does not remain
central to the political movement of social democracy, then
that tradition has nothing to recommend it beyond its some-
what equivocal history and failure in the economic realm to
offer a viable alternative to the marketplace, neither of which
are particularly strong selling points.
Another perhaps more surprising realm in which liberal
egalitarianism is in retreat is that of the academy. Why this
is surprising is that post-Rawlsian liberal egalitarianism is
supposed to be the ruling orthodoxy or paradigm for politi-
cal theory in the anglophone world. Liberalism is often used
as a euphemism or shorthand for political theory, ever since
the publication of Rawls’ A Theory of Justice finally contra-
dicted Peter Laslett’s premature obituary for political philoso-
phy.6 Many political theorists still write laments about the
difficulty of moving out from beneath Rawls’ long shadow,
and will no doubt be surprised by my claim that liberal egal-
itarianism is in retreat in the academy. Yet the hegemonic role
6 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

of Rawlsian political liberalism is more an appearance than

a reality. Non-Rawlsian perspectives still predominate in
the teaching and study of political theory, and where the
Rawlsian legacy of liberal egalitarianism is defended this is
usually in dry-as-dust ‘micro-debates’ about minor arguments
concerning particular pages of A Theory of Justice. Liberal
egalitarianism is worthy but dull, and no match for the more
exciting and esoteric reaches of post-structuralism and decon-
structionism, or the flirtation with danger offered by the likes
of Nietzsche or Carl Schmitt. Even amongst the worthy,
the lure of libertarianism, communitarianism or multicultur-
alism continues to challenge the coherence and desirability of
political liberalism.
As a liberal egalitarian I cannot, and do not want to, deny
that this plurality of voices is both beneficial and important.
It is no part of liberal egalitarianism’s aspiration to offer itself
as a dogmatic truth beyond the necessary challenges of rival
views. That said, the tendency of liberal egalitarianism to
become increasingly concerned with the minutiae of Rawls
or Dworkin, places a responsibility on other sympathetic cri-
tics to try to renew interest in the broader liberal egalitarian
position. That is primarily what I aim to offer in this short
book – not a full philosophical or sociological defence of the
liberal egalitarian perspective. Instead my aim is to provide
an overview and endorsement of the liberal egalitarian
perspective, and dismissal of some of the standard arguments
for its supposed philosophical incoherence or political
redundancy.
This task is both important and urgent if it is to retain
some hold as a civilizing influence on centre-left politics,
where, sadly, there is a dearth of defenders of the kind of
principled approach to political power that liberal egalitari-
anism advocates. I remain enough of a rationalist to believe
that it is both a necessary and desirable reason for retaining
political thought in the university curriculum, in order that it
can serve this role of contributing to the education of an
active and humane citizenry.
Liberal egalitarianism both needs and deserves a regular
restatement and defence – I aim to provide such a defence in
this book. But what is liberal egalitarianism? To answer that
question will take the rest of this book, which is itself merely
 Introduction: What is Liberalism? 7

a fraction of what would be required for a full philosophical

and political defence. Nevertheless, before turning to
that longer story I can identify some key features of liberal
egalitarianism.
Whereas many commentators and philosophers continue
to see liberalism as primarily about liberty, other liberal
thinkers have claimed that the core value at the heart of lib-
eralism is not liberty but rather equality. This point has been
made most recently and powerfully by Ronald Dworkin, but
it is a view widely shared amongst liberal political theorists,
and as we shall see it is a view that has deep roots in the
history of liberal egalitarianism.7 But identifying equality as
the core value of liberalism raises a number of problems and
ambiguities. For many, equality suggests sameness and the
denial of difference, and as such is not a value at all but is
actually antithetical to liberalism. Many nineteenth-century
liberals, for example, saw equality as a ‘levelling system’,
where that levelling was always downwards and thus a denial
of the difference, diversity and autonomy that confers value
on human existence. Such liberals are anti-egalitarian, seeing
the political emancipation offered by democratic movements
as a threat to culture and civilization: this was certainly the
view of both Von Humboldt and J. S. Mill in the nineteenth
century.8 This common perspective of the ninteenth century
was also shared by many twentieth-century liberals such as
Friedrich Hayek. Other philosophers, of a less conservative
character, still concur with the view that equality is not really
a value as such but rather a distributive relation, which might
be attached to a host of different values.9 As a distributive
relation (what Joseph Raz calls a ‘principle of closure’) it can
be shown to be anything but valuable by the application of
a thought experiment which asks whether, in the distribution
of bad things such as illnesses or disabilities, the application
of equality as a distributive criterion makes things more or
less valuable. Most people would argue that the equalization
of circumstances by distributing disabilities is both absurd
and repugnant.
In response to these challenges liberal egalitarians claim
that equality is a complex of person-regarding values and
relations. The core of this position is the fundamental ethical
view, claiming that which is of most value is the human
8 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

person, and however we characterize that value it is some-

thing that is exemplified by all human persons – equally. All
human beings matter equally simply in virtue of their
common moral status as equal moral subjects. There are
numerous origins for this belief, both religious and humanis-
tic, but the core idea is neither confined to any of these
sources nor does it depend on the truth of any of these com-
prehensive moral, philosophical or theological perspectives.
What does matter is that the idea of equality of concern and
respect is both widely held and attractive to individuals and
groups beyond the confines of any particular system or
culture. Of course, merely agreeing that all persons should be
treated with equality of concern and respect does not answer
all questions. Not least, we are left with the question of what
sort of treatment ensures equality of concern and respect.
Liberal egalitarian philosophers and theorists differ in how
we should answer that question. However, it is no small
achievement to defend fundamental equality of status, as for
much of human history and in most parts of the world this
idea has been anything but the norm. Social status, race, eth-
nicity, gender, age, capacity for reason or education – indeed
almost any criterion of difference has been used to challenge
or deny equality of concern and respect. The contemporary
turn towards difference, partiality and group-based identity
brings with it the risk of overturning this precious and
precarious achievement, so it needs constant restatement as
well as defence. The vitality and urgency of this truth is as
important as its philosophical defence.
Most liberal egalitarians hesitate at offering any single and
conclusive defence of their core commitment. In this, they are
no doubt right to acknowledge that there is no single knock-
down argument in favour of equality of concern and respect.
That said, one must not infer from this fact that there are no
reasons for being an egalitarian that are more compelling
than the reasons we have for being anti-egalitarian. It is not
simply a matter of blind existential choice. While the philo-
sophical arguments for equal moral status are precarious and
subject to critique, they are less dubious than the arguments
so far offered for the contrary position. All theological and
quasi-scientific arguments for natural hierarchy or group dif-
ference are more spurious still, and, what is more, they are
 Introduction: What is Liberalism? 9

highly ineffective in persuading those whose status is being

denied that they are less deserving of moral consideration
than others, and ought to be discriminated against. In the end
it has only ever been force and coercion that has sustained
social relations of inequality. Although a pure regime of
liberal equality exists nowhere at present, we know enough
from the experience of more liberal and democratic states
that they rely on less coercion and force, at least to the extent
of persuading citizens that they are equally deserving of civil
liberties, rights and welfare.
We can distinguish two components to the principles of
liberal egalitarianism defended in this book. At the philo-
sophical level there is the basic substantive value of equal
personhood. At the political level are the principles which
distribute the rights and economic resources necessary to
protect equal personhood. Although guided by the former,
political liberalism is mostly concerned with the shape of
political principles that are guided by that basic philosophi-
cal commitment to equality.
It is the moral significance of the human person that is at
the heart of liberal egalitarianism first and foremost. This
makes liberalism an individualistic doctrine. Individualism is
often seen as a problem in that it presupposes a false social
ontology, by radically atomizing society and dissolving social
bonds. Many versions of liberalism are indeed open to such
criticisms, but it is not an essential feature of liberal egali-
tarian individualism that it must be ‘atomistic’. Liberal
egalitarianism is individualistic in an ethical or normative
sense only. That means that in asserting the equal dignity of
persons it attaches supreme ethical significance to the human
person. This does not entail the denial of any particular social
ontology and how persons may well find their identities in,
or have their identities conferred by, group membership. It
merely asserts that the sociological or social-psychological
account of identity is not the last word on ethical or norma-
tive significance. Many critics of liberalism still dismiss it out
of hand because of its apparent denial of social context and
constitutive attachments to others that make up our individ-
ual identity. This criticism has been addressed extensively and
rejected conclusively. No liberal egalitarian is required to
follow Margaret Thatcher and claim that ‘there is no such
10 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

thing as society’. What liberals do claim is that no constitu-

tive attachment, either to state, nation, family or cultural
group, must trump the claims of individuals and their basic
rights and status.
The equal status attached to all human persons has also
often been thought to entail that liberals are primarily con-
cerned with personal autonomy. Yet, whether liberal egali-
tarians must attach value to autonomy is a secondary matter
and depends on how one fleshes out the commitment to
equality of concern and respect. The reason that autonomy
is often seen as the core liberal value is that it is supposed
to be the best explanation of the idea of liberal rights and
protections that are central to liberal egalitarians. Liberals
undoubtedly cash-out the idea of equal moral status in terms
of the distribution of a set of basic rights and titles. These
consist of both civil and political rights and protections, as
well as claims of economic resources and wealth. These form
the subject matter of political liberalism, as we shall see in
chapters 4 and 5. These rights constitute protected spheres
that place the individual beyond the reach of the coercive
claims of the state or society. Of course these protections are
only ethical and not practical. Any regime that wants to
discard the legitimate claims of individuals can do so. The
only force underpinning such protections is moral and is
wielded by public opinion, whether national or international.
Sceptics often use this fact about rights (a fact which applies
as much to legal as to political rights) as a basis for the claim
that rights and civil liberties are not much use in the face of
the real world of political power and coercion. It is also
common to dismiss the culture of rights as an inconvenience
that interferes with the real demands of politics. While one
can overstate the significance of rights, as sometimes happens
in American political theory, we should not lose sight of the
power of rights claims as normative reasons, nor should we
lose sight of the power of reasons in motivating or restrain-
ing political actions.
The civil and political rights at the heart of liberal egali-
tarianism provide individuals with a morally protected
sphere, and it is this that is seen to involve the idea of
autonomy. Within this sphere individuals have final discre-
tion about moral, political and religious issues and life
 Introduction: What is Liberalism? 11

choices. This seems to suggest that it is individual choice and

endorsement that matters most in determining the authority
of any moral viewpoint. Undoubtedly, liberal egalitarians do
attach significance to choice or endorsement of moral view-
points, but it is not obvious that this entails a commitment
by them to any strong doctrine of autonomy as the basic
value of liberal egalitarianism. If it is merely the case that
respect for persons is an autonomy-regarding view because
liberals attach value to endorsement and choice, then there is
not much to the claim about autonomy and liberal egalitar-
ians might well concede it. However, theorists who attach
value to autonomy, especially those in the Kantian tradition,
generally use the idea of autonomous choice as self-
legislation. This rather complex idea takes us back into the
metaphysics of free will and the idea of positive freedom,
which we will consider in chapter 4. Strong autonomy theo-
ries focus on the idea of the individual’s will, so that indi-
viduals can be seen as non-autonomous if they make choices
of the wrong sort. Liberal egalitarians tend to respect choices,
as long as they are not the subject of direct external political
coercion and are made within the sphere of an individual’s
personal discretion. The distinction turns on the role of
choice. Strong autonomy theories like those of Kant and
Rousseau focus on the kinds of choices made; weak auton-
omy of theories focus on choice within one’s set of rights and
liberties, rather than its character. Liberal egalitarians are cer-
tainly not committed to autonomy in this stronger sense,
although some do endorse such a philosophical position. As
the use of the concept of autonomy involves some slippage
between these two senses, it is helpful to reserve it for the
strong, positive freedom thesis, and instead focus on equal
rights and opportunities as being at the heart of political lib-
eralism. Equality of concern and respect is certainly consis-
tent with individuals making life choices or endorsing moral
viewpoints that attach little or no significance to autonomy
as the source of morality. Instead liberal egalitarianism is con-
cerned with equality as a political value that is concerned
with the regulation of legitimate coercion. The imposition of
certain moral, religious or political views on individuals by
the coercive power of the political community is to deny
the equal status of individuals; in that sense it is a denial of
12 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

equality or concern and respect, and it is that alone which

makes it wrong. Thus civil and political rights set the bound-
aries to the limits of legitimate coercion by the state or wider
society and provide similar boundaries to personal discretion.
Within that sphere of personal discretion, individuals have,
effectively, a right to do wrong.10 It needs to be stressed here
that this right to do wrong follows for the important reason
that liberal egalitarianism does not take the view that there
are no objective moral values and therefore that individual
choices are the sole determinant of what we call values.11
Some liberals are sceptics and take precisely this view, but it
is not necessary that all must do so. Liberal egalitarianism,
as a political doctrine, is about the legitimate use of coercion
or political power, and one can reasonably argue that while
some choices are morally wrong or personally harmful, it is
not appropriate that they be subject to political coercion or
force. Thus it can genuinely be the case that individuals enjoy-
ing equal concern and respect can have a right to harm them-
selves or hold beliefs and values that are false or repugnant
to others. This is one of the more demanding features of a
liberal egalitarian view and one that is easiest to drop in the
face of majority opinion, but in the end it is this view which
sustains a humane and civil political community. It is also this
view that underpins political liberalism, as it confines the
scope of liberal values to the political realm where they
underpin fair terms of social cooperation. It is not the goal
of liberal politics to foster human perfection or to make men
moral.
Another important feature of the liberal egalitarian view
about rights and civil liberties is that it is not subject to
the political charge that it places too much emphasis on
rights and not enough on responsibilities. ‘No rights without
responsibilities’ is a platitude trumpeted by New Labour in
Britain, by apostles of the Third Way such as Blair, and
former President Clinton in the US, as well as communitari-
ans on both sides of the Atlantic, and many social democrats.
Yet, like all platitudes, it ignores the central truth of the
liberal egalitarian’s understanding of rights.
Liberal egalitarians, unlike libertarians such as the late
Robert Nozick, are not committed to the idea that individuals
have a narrow set of pre-political rights which place
 Introduction: What is Liberalism? 13

‘side-constraints’ on human interaction, this being the end of

the matter. Instead, liberal egalitarians have always argued
that equality of concern and respect brings with it not only
rights as civil protections, but also positive rights to economic
justice. Both sets of rights create strong obligations and duties
on individuals to contribute their fair share to social justice
and the worst-off in society. Different liberal egalitarians give
weaker or stronger accounts of the demands of these obliga-
tions, duties and responsibilities, but it is simply ignorance to
argue that liberals are only concerned about rights and not
about responsibilities. The two concepts, as just about every
theorist of rights since Jeremy Bentham has acknowledged,
always go hand in hand. The issue between different
liberal egalitarians is what kind of rights and what kind of
responsibilities?
To sum up the basic commitments of the egalitarian
political liberalism that will be the focus in this book, we can
identify four components, the first two of which refer to its
philosophical basis and the second two to its political claims:

1 All individuals are of equal and ultimate moral value.

2 This individualism is ethical and not sociological or
psychological.
3 Equality of concern and respect is cashed-out in terms of
a set of basic rights, civil liberties and economic entitle-
ments. These rights entail accompanying responsibilities
and duties.
4 Ethical individualism and equality of concern and respect
does not entail moral scepticism about objective values.
It is instead concerned with the moral limitation of
coercion or political power.

The early chapters of the book will provide an account

of the philosophical origins of liberal egalitarianism and its
more recent development as a political theory. The remain-
der of the book is concerned with its defence against four
strands of contemporary criticism. These criticisms overlap,
but can be distinguished as those forming an attack on the
theoretical foundations of liberal egalitarianism, and those
consisting of three political criticisms of liberalism. Defend-
ing political liberalism against these three political challenges
14 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

is as important as defending political liberalism’s philoso-

phical credentials. This is so because liberal theorists are not
merely engaged in a philosophical exercise but are concerned
to connect their theories with the real world of politics. If the
political objections hold then the philosophical task, whether
completely or partly successful, risks being potentially redun-
dant. That said, the philosophical and political criticism of
liberalism is interconnected. The four strands of criticism
addressed in the last three chapters are as follows:

1 That political liberalism misunderstands the nature and

demands of politics. In the form in which this criticism is
advanced by, amongst others, Glen Newey,12 liberal
egalitarianism is a profoundly anti-political doctrine
that threatens to displace the demands of politics and to
subordinate them to the privileged role of the political
philosopher.
2 The second issue turns to the philosophical claims under-
pinning liberalism. In particular we shall address what I
have called the ethnocentric objection, which is not
simply that liberalism is based on a false conception of
neutrality, but that it posits a set of narrow and cultur-
ally specific political prejudices as universal values and
principles. This objection underpins both communitari-
anism and its most common contemporary variant in
multiculturalism, with its challenge to liberalism as a
disguised version of cultural imperialism. My task in this
chapter will not be a full philosophical defence of liber-
alism, but I will challenge the idea that the conception of
philosophical justification that underpins liberalism rests
on a disguised politics of cultural imperialism.

I then turn to two claims about liberal political theory and

its connection to the state.

3 The first of these claims is raised by multiculturalists and

group rights theorists. Here I am not simply concerned
with the question of whether egalitarians can take culture
seriously, rather I address the more fundamental claim
advanced by the likes of Bhikhu Parekh13 that liberal
egalitarians have a narrowly state-centred view of
 Introduction: What is Liberalism? 15

politics. This criticism reflects a similar claim advanced

by Quentin Skinner and James Tully,14 to the effect that
modern liberalism is constrained by the conception of the
modern juridical state which underlies it, and that conse-
quently it cannot take seriously the claims of any groups
or associations between the individual and the state.
4 The second of these criticisms addresses the potential
redundancy of liberal egalitarianism as a consequence of
globalization and the retreat of the state. This view has
been advanced recently by David Held and Peter Singer,15
who both argue that the aspirations of liberal egalitari-
anism are best sought by thinking beyond the boundaries
of liberalism in the direction of a cosmopolitan concep-
tion of political association.

In the last three chapters I will set out the basic challenge
and show that liberalism is either immune to it, or can with-
stand it. Each chapter will identify the most contemporary
and therefore pressing of these persistent criticisms. Obvi-
ously, in a short book like this not all the nuances of criti-
cism can be accommodated, but the basic outlines of a liberal
response to this persistent wave of criticism can be identified.
As pointed out earlier, my main concern is to reiterate the sig-
nificance and vitality of liberal egalitarianism. If this task is
successful, it is up to students and readers to pursue these
issues in more detail with the great contemporary liberal
egalitarian thinkers. Those who, for perfectly understandable
reasons, do not wish to devote themselves to political theory
or the history of thought can still derive something of value
from the restatement of the liberal egalitarian viewpoint.
John Stuart Mill, in his defence of freedom of speech in On
Liberty, argues for the significance of negative criticism of
even true beliefs as a necessary means of maintaining their
vitality and significance among the public.16 Political theory,
in the modern university, continues that important source of
intellectual training through negative criticism. Indeed, most
political theory teaching takes the form of finding ‘the three
things wrong with Plato’s Republic, Hegel’s Philosophy of
Right or Rawls’ A Theory of Justice.’ In both the anglophone
and continental traditions, constructive theorizing is the
exception rather than the norm. There is nothing wrong with
16 Introduction: What is Liberalism?

this; negative criticism is important for precisely the sort of

reasons that Mill suggests, and constructive theory is extra-
ordinarily difficult even for the brightest minds. Yet, just as
there is a place for negative criticism and for the rare flashes
of constructive theory, there is also a role for positive restate-
ment as part of the same process that Mill identifies. On its
own, negative criticism, though supremely important, can
have the corrosive tendency towards total scepticism. For the
scholar, intellectual or philosopher there are no better reasons
for one political view than any other view. Many anti-
rationalists influenced by Michael Oakeshott tend to take
this sceptical view, although I do not believe that it was
Oakeshott’s view. This kind of sceptical view is not only
wrong, it is also dangerous as it does have an effect on our
political culture. To counter it we need positive restatements
and defences of liberal egalitarianism, just as much as we
need criticism of and challenges to its more hubristic claims.
What makes this book a modest defence of liberalism is that
I do not propose to silence critics of liberal egalitarianism.
What I do intend to show is that the critics do not necessarily
have the last word.