Pluralism and liberalism

Pluralism has long been a core concept of political science. Nowadays it is most immediately associated with the subdiscipline of political theory, which uses the term, since John Rawls at least, to describe a situation of strong social diversity (especially at the religious, ethical and political levels). Partly because of this, the concept of "pluralism" is seen as closely connected with liberal and individualistic world-views. However, the history of pluralism is more complex that it seems at first sight; and even contemporary pluralism has representatives (e.g. Connolly, Mouffe) whose belonging to mainstream liberalism is not straightforward (see also Galston's distinction between rationalistic and pluralistic liberalisms). In order to clarify these issues this paper will propose a "Begriffsgeschichte" of "pluralism". In the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century, "pluralism" was the label for a specific kind of analysis of political systems, according to which in liberal democracies VARIOUS groups have access to political power (as opposed to just one or a few -- which is what elitist, Marxist and corporatist approaches suggested). And even earlier, "pluralism" served to describe the position of a group of British political scientists (Cole, Laski, etc.) who stressed the need to overcome the classical model of state sovereignty in favour of more decentralized as well as less professionalized decision-making systems. The first task of this paper will be to offer a survey of these conceptual transformations, and to assess the reasons behind the changes. In a second moment, this paper will also propose a consideration of the long term conceptual history of "pluralism" beyond political science. From approximately 1700 onwards the word "pluralism" became part of the conceptual system of some philosophers. It was used, with different meanings, by authors such as Immanuel Kant, Hermann Lotze and later of course William James, who popularized the concept in the early 20th century. How did this philosophical term, closely linked with the history of metaphysics, end up in the vocabulary of political scientists, to eventually (with Rawls) re-enter the discourse of philosophers? And finally, can we make any generalisation about the interconnection between pluralism and liberalism?