ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that totalitarianism is non-neutral, but rather makes a normative claim that neutrality is a sufficient condition of a healthy society. Rawlsian “philosophical neutrality” attempts to reconcile social contractarian with communitarian thought by creating a set of institutions that is neutral and contextually determined per polity. Pluralism, like neutrality, is a relative concept: in a society that is relatively geographically or culturally isolated, the diversity in society will be lower, whereas more open and metropolitan societies will be more diverse. Minimization of state coercion can either be subject to a sufficient condition or as an end unto itself: a successful democracy and a successful anarchy would both pass the ideological neutrality test. Institutions that are neutral are pluralistic and they change through a combination of endogenous and exogenous processes but are generally powered by internal processes of change.
