Building and sustaining solidarity is a compelling challenge, especially in ethnically and religiously diverse societies. Recent research has concentrated on forces that trigger backlash and exclusion. The Strains of Commitment examines the politics of diversity in the opposite direction, exploring the potential sources of support for an inclusive solidarity, in particular political sources of solidarity. The volume asks three questions: Is solidarity really necessary for successful modern societies? Is diversity really a threat to solidarity? And what types of political communities, political agents, and political institutions and policies help sustain solidarity in contexts of diversity? To answer these questions, the volume brings together leading scholars in both normative political theory and empirical social science. Drawing on in-depth case studies, historical and comparative research, and quantitative cross-national studies, the research suggests that solidarity does not emerge spontaneously or naturally from economic and social processes but is inherently built or eroded though political action. The politics that builds inclusive solidarity may be conflicting in the first instance, but the resulting solidarity is sustained over time when it becomes incorporated into collective (typically national) identities and narratives, when it is reinforced on a recurring basis by political agents, and - most importantly - when it becomes embedded in political institutions and policy regimes. While some of the traditional political sources of solidarity are being challenged or weakened in an era of increased globalization and mobility, the authors explore the potential for new political narratives, coalitions, and policy regimes to sustain inclusive solidarity.

This volume explores and analyses the continued relevance and ramifications of the original position, the central idea of John Rawls's political philosophy.

John Rawls's A Theory of Justice, first published in 1971, is arguably the most important work of moral and political philosophy of the twentieth century. A staple on undergraduate courses in political theory, it is a classic text in which Rawls makes an astonishing contribution to political and moral thought Rawls's 'A Theory of Justice': A Reader's Guide offers a concise and accessible introduction to this hugely important and challenging work. Written specifically to meet the needs of students coming to Rawls for the first time, the book offers guidance on: - Philosophical and historical context - Key themes - Reading the text - Reception and influence - Further reading

This is Volume XVII of eighteen of a series on the Sociology of Behaviour and Psychology. First published in 1962, this study offers a theoretical synthesis of collective behavior.

The first detailed reconstruction of the late work of John Rawls, further developing his ideas of 'justice-as-fairness'.

This book introduces the reader to the political theories of the American philosopher John Rawls. Rawls was arguably the most important political philosopher of the twentieth century. Barely a word of political philosophy is written today that is not indebted in some way, either directly or indirectly, to the philosophical paradigm that Rawls bequeathed. On his death at aged 81 in 2002 his obituaries, written by some of the leading figures in Western philosophy, placed him alongside John Locke and Immanuel Kant in the canon of Western political philosophers. His colleague, the philosopher Hilary Putnam, said: ‘His work is not going to be forgotten for decades, I think, for centuries.’ Rawls Explained sets out Rawls’s complex arguments in a way that makes them accessible to first-time readers of his hugely influential work. This book is both clear in its exposition of Rawls’s ideas and is true to the complex purposes of his arguments. It also attends to the variety of objections that have been made to Rawls’s arguments since it is these objections that have shaped the progression of his work. Therefore the aim of the book is to explain the basic ideas of Rawls’s theory of justice in an engaging but comprehensive fashion and to guide the reader carefully through his arguments. The book is divided into three parts corresponding to the three books that form the core of Rawls’s theory: A Theory of Justice (1971), Political Liberalism (1993) and The Law of Peoples (1999). This volume sets out Rawls’s ideas in the form of a critical exposition that elaborates the central themes and philosophical background of his arguments. Each section of the book ends with a survey of some of the main criticisms of the arguments coupled with Rawls’s strongest counterarguments.

Taken together, the articles collected in this volume offer readers a reliable, illuminating, up-to-date and comprehensive introduction to both the political philosophy of John Rawls and the most significant of the scholarly debates it has generated and is likely to generate in coming years. Thoughtfully selected and introduced by David Reidy, they establish the structure, depth, fecundity and appeal, as well as the potentially significant defects, of Rawls' thought. The volume represents an invaluable resource for both students and scholars of Rawls or contemporary political philosophy.