ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how political plurality might be deprecated and emaciated by compromise. A compromise is regarded as necessary precisely because different positions cannot be reconciled. 'Deliberative compromise' is depicted in terms of the inclusive participation of all relevant or interested parties and is expected to generate the best possible solution under difficult circumstances, and furthermore is expected to foment reflexion upon one's own position and respect for others. Deliberation is seen as producing legitimate outcomes because the participants are equal. Deliberative compromise raises questions not only of equality and inequality, but of inclusion and exclusion too. In the early twentieth century, socialist and communist parties opposed the idea of social welfare. The institution and guarantee of the social rights of citizenship was hardly a straightforwardly progressive or empowering moment; along with the rupture of class inequality came stratification along different lines.
