ABSTRACT

The role of government is first and last that of preserving liberty in civil association under the rule of law, where deep moral solidarity is lacking, where there is cultural diversity rather than seamless community. In some perspectives, the role of political institutions is to shore up tottering identities, to heal the scars inflicted on established traditions by cultural change, whereas in others the project is that of constituting new identities by the use of political power. In this reductionist perspective, all varied cultural achievements of mankind are epiphenomena, transitory reflections of changes in the economic base of human society. The project of constituting new forms of human identity through political practice is, indeed, the preeminent contemporary form of this modern heresy, and it is found in many current varieties of liberalism. In theory as well as in practice, Millian liberalism is a force for cultural homogeneity and against diversity, a political tendency for which progress is more important than liberty.