Pragmatic Liberalism: Constructing a Civil Society PDF
Preview Pragmatic Liberalism: Constructing a Civil Society
Pragmatic Liberalism This page intentionally left blank Pragmatic Liberalism Constructing a Civil Society Albert Hunter and Carl Milofsky PRAGMATICLIBERALISM © Albert Hunter and Carl Milofsky,2007. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-7549-2 All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010 and Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire,England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States,United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53612-2 ISBN 978-0-230-60305-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230603059 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hunter,Albert Pragmatic liberalism :constructing a civil society / Albert Hunter and Carl Milofsky. p.cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.Social ethics—United States.2.Civil society—United States 3.Liberalism—Moral and ethical aspects.4.Civics.I.Milofsky,Carl. II.Title. HN90.M6H86 2007 303.3(cid:2)72—dc22 2006050192 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd.,Chennai,India. First edition:April 2007 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Research for this book was partially funded by the Changing Dimensions ofTrusteeship Project, Program on Nonprofit Organizations,Yale University,funded by the Lilly Endowment For Renée and Sandy, our partners in the fifteen years of talk, travel, and adventure that have gone into this book This page intentionally left blank Contents Prologue ix 1 Malaise 1 2 Rights 15 3 Why Help? 29 4 The Conservative View: Markets, Inequality, and Social Efficiency 51 5 Class Conflict and the Radical View of the Common Good 71 6 The Constructive Chaos of Pluralism 87 7 Institutions, Social Policy, and the Death of the Old Social Science 113 8 Moral Policy 137 9 Implementing Pragmatic Liberalism: Leadership, Citizenship, and Community 159 Works Cited 173 Index 187 This page intentionally left blank Prologue The key concepts in our title—pragmatism, liberalism, and civil society— are rich with meanings and deserve a brief comment on how we will think about them and use them in this book. Their richness is in part the result of these ideas having both an evolving technical academic history and a popular public usage. The academic and popular meanings are related to one another but also contain subtle distinctions that reflect different uses of the ideas and shifting historical arguments and agendas. For each concept, we will first state what we see as its most common contemporary popular usage, fol- lowed by a few of their more central academic meanings. We recognize fully that to do justice to the nuances of the concepts would require a separate treatise on each, which, fortunately, others have provided and to which we are indebted. (For only a partial sampling, for example, on pragmatism see Stuhr, 2000; Murphy, 1990; Durkheim, 1983; on liberalism see Hobhouse, 1911; Strauss L., 1968; Anderson, 1990; Kelly, 2005, and on civil society see Edwards, 2004; Ehrenberg, 1999; Keane, 1998; Seligman, 1995; and Shils, 1997.) Pragmatism The popular idea of pragmatism is widely understood to connote a realistic view of a problematic situation that produces a ready solution that works. One focuses on the immediate problem at hand and finds a quick, if not always elegant, solution. The solution may be devoid of artistry and extraneous consid- erations for one is not sidetracked or distracted by “philosophical” concerns or questions of “purity.” Beauty, elegance, and ideological consistency are sec- ondary to finding a satisfactory solution—one that works. It may not be the “best” solution, but, in the terms of rational decision theorists such as Herbert Simon (1997), it is a “sastisfycing” solution—plenty good enough. A bit of this and a bit of that, when cobbled together in an imaginative way, gets the job done. For example, some cranks, chains, shafts, and other parts from bicycles wedded to the light frames and cloth of kites produced the first airplane, while half a century later the small Redstone rocket perched awkwardly atop the powerful Jupiter C missile lofted the first American space satellite into orbit because the
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