ABSTRACT

It is important to distinguish between pragmatism in politics and pragmatism about politics: between political pragmatism and a pragmatic approach to political theory. Political pragmatism proper is a matter of so managing one's political dealings as to sacrifice political ideals for the sake of realizing some otherwise not realizable suboptimization. Pragmatism affords a natural as well as neutral vantage point for the assessing political issues. Pragmatism political theory is thus concerned with the process of politics and only obliquely and indirectly with its products. A pragmatically benign set of social arrangements is one that enables people to flourish in relation to their own project and to interact smoothly and beneficially in matters relating to the common interest. Pragmatism pivots on the issue of applicable efficacy and efficiency, but amidst the complexity of real-world processes and interactions, it is often difficult or impracticable to say with warranted confidence what the efficacy of certain measures is going to be.