ABSTRACT
It is often said that political pluralism is a necessary condition for attaining and maintaining democracy. It is also said that political pluralism destroys democracy. (After all, if pluralism were a guarantee of good things, the former Yugoslavia would be one of the happiest and most democratic places on earth.) In this paper I shall use the cultural theory stemming from the work of Mary Douglas to establish the political cultural conditions under which pluralism strengthens or weakens democracy.
