ABSTRACT
The attempt to construct a ‘thin’ account of universalism has become an essential feature of contemporary political theory. In many respects it forms the heart of the challenge of sustaining the normative projects of political theory in the face of antifoundationalism and multiculturalism. Across the broad spectrum of theories that premise their moral and political arguments on thin conceptions of universality there is the shared claim that it is possible to adapt, rather than abandon, the foundations of the modernist project in ways that do not neuter the authority of claims to justice. This turn in contemporary political theory deserves close scrutiny as the strategies adopted do have important implications for the ways in which we think about normative issues and for the ways in which we construct political solutions to the most pressing problems of the contemporary world.
