The Democratic Horizon
Hyperpluralism and the Renewal of Political Liberalism

Alessandro Ferrara explains what he terms 'the democratic horizon' and reviews the challenges under which democracies must operate.

Alessandro Ferrara (Author)

9781107579491, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 15 October 2015

254 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.35 kg

'Alessandro Ferrara forcefully confronts twenty-first-century realities that pose very real challenges to the future of democracy and responds with fresh proposals that emerged from engaged dialogue with a remarkably broad range of political philosophers, legal theorists, and political scientists. This is a breakthrough book.' Bruce Ackerman, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University

Alessandro Ferrara explains what he terms 'the democratic horizon' - the idea that democracy is no longer simply one form of government among others, but is instead almost universally regarded as the only legitimate form of government, the horizon to which most of us look. Professor Ferrara reviews the challenges under which democracies must operate, focusing on hyperpluralism, and impresses a new twist onto the framework of political liberalism. He shows that distinguishing real democracies from imitations can be difficult, responding to this predicament by enriching readers' understanding of the spirit of democracy; clearing readers' views of pluralism from residues of ethnocentrism; and conceiving multiple versions of democratic culture, rooted in the diversity of civilizational contexts.

Introduction
1. Reasons that move the imagination: politics at its best
2. Democracy and openness
3. Reflexive pluralism and the conjectural turn
4. Hyperpluralism and the multivariate democratic polity
5. Cuius religio, eius res publica: on multiple democracies
6. Multiculturalism: negation or completion of liberalism?
7. Beyond the nation: governance and deliberative democracy
8. Truth, justification and political liberalism
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Political science & theory [JPA], Social theory [JHBA], Religious groups: social & cultural aspects [JFSR], History of ideas [JFCX], Cultural studies [JFC], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Social & cultural history [HBTB]