ABSTRACT
This chapter is part of an effort to articulate the idea of militant moderation.1 Militant moderation is, in many ways, an offshoot of the republican and constitutionalist traditions; this will be obvious in what follows. However, it is also distinctive: fi rst, as moderation, in its struggle against human destructiveness and the treatment of that destructiveness as an enemy. Second, in the emphasis which it places on the claims of moral pluralism: there are multiple legitimate and good ends, and right action requires a harmonious balance in the pursuit of those ends. And third, it is also distinctive as militant, in the ambitiousness of its political and intellectual goals. It is only the militant form of moderation that could possibly support something so grand and ambitious, so impossible and mad, as global democracy. And militant moderation is not satisfi ed with just global democracy. To be attractive and sustainable, global democracy must be more than just global democracy: it must also be mature. It is time to articulate and to defend the moderate ideal of maturity because mature democracy is a central political component of this ideal. I begin by explaining more fully what I mean by moderation, fi rst, and maturity, second.
