ABSTRACT
The argument of the previous two chapters has demonstrated an internal tension within comprehensive liberal theory. I have framed this tension in terms of a conflict between the social pluralism that is the outcome of liberal political practice and liberal theory’s deeply philosophical conception of legitimacy. Stated baldly, liberalism holds that public consensus, upon the fundamental normative principles of a political order, is required for the legitimacy of that order; however, liberalism is also committed to the view that within a free society, one should expect to find a plurality of conflicting normative visions. Where such pluralism exists, there could be little groundwork upon which to base wide consensus on any particular normative principles. Liberalism’s pluralism frustrates its own theory of legitimacy.
