Julian F. Müller: Political pluralism, disagreement and justice: the case for polycentric democracy, New York, NY: Routledge, 2019, 234 pp, USD 48.95 (paperback)

Excerpt

Julian Müller’s book is an attempt to advance an innovative answer to a topical question: “Can modern societies—despite their pervasive disagreements—do better than settling for modus vivendi arrangements?” (p. 2). Müller hence addresses one of our major contemporary political and social challenges—the problem of increasing pluralism and heterogeneity induced by current social, demographic, and technological trends, and the need to deal with the resulting tensions, polarization, and cleavages. In these new historical circumstances, the task is to find new ways of thinking and addressing the promise and limits of the “live and let live” principle, as a precondition for social order. This requires revisiting and rethinking the foundational political theory apparatus. Müller’s book does precisely that. …