English Pluralism as Cultural Definition

The pluralist movement in British political thought at the beginning of the twentieth century was marked by considerable internal tension.* Nevertheless, a salient common goal among its diverse adherents was to elevate society-conceived as an intricate web of voluntary organizations-against liberal individualism on the one hand and state collectivism on the other. Against claims as to the sovereignty of the individual in the first perspective and the state in the second, pluralist writers like F. W. Maitland, J. N. Figgis, H. J. Laski, and G. D. H. Cole emphasized the equal importance of group life to human fulfillment and social cohesion. Groups, they maintained, possessed their own corporate existence, irreducible to both their members and the concession of the state. As such, small associations must be regarded as the subject of inherent rights. In the light of these insistences, pluralism has offered rich pickings to political and legal theorists interested in delineating the respective spheres and ontological status of the individual, the voluntary association, and the state.' This is especially true today when growing concern over the

Art history · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · George (robot) · Pluralism (philosophy) · Political science · Politics · Social thought · Sociology · History · Law · Philosophy · Political and Economic history of UK and US

• Social Citizenship and Social Rights in an Age of Extremes

  Open Access•Julia Moses•Modern Intellectual History•2017

  Add to list

• The Concept of the State in British and French Political Thought

  Open Access•Caroline Laborde, Cécile Laborde•Political Studies•2000

  Add to list