About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

23 J. Ethics & Soc. Phil. 321 (2022-2023)
The Inherent Tolerance of the Democratic Political Process

handle is hein.journals/jetshy23 and id is 331 raw text is: Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy https://doi.org/lo.26556/jesp.v23i3.54 VOL. 23, NO. 3 - JANUARY 2023 © 2023 Authors THE INHERENT TOLERANCE OF THE DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL PROCESS Emanuela Ceva and Rossella De Bernardi OLERATION is one of the most debated ideals across liberal political theories of democracy. While such prominent liberal theorists as John Rawls celebrate the fundamental role of toleration in the design of well-ordered liberal democracies, critiques of the value of toleration date back to Immanuel Kant's denunciation of this notion as the arrogant posture of the powerful, granting the powerless concessions at their discretion.' Ultimately, on whether toleration should be abandoned or rescued among liberal dem- ocratic core commitments, the jury is still out. This article advances a novel, qualified defense of toleration as a central ideal of a liberal democratic interac- tive political morality. To be sure, defenses of toleration as an ideal for contemporary liberal democracies have been numerous in the last couple of decades. Many such defenses follow a twofold strategy. At its essence the strategy consists in the departure from the traditional characterization of toleration. This characteriza- tion is indicative of interpersonal relations of forbearance distinguished by an element of disapproval among the participants in those relations. This depar- ture comes in two steps. The basic step is a removal of the emphasis on forbear- ance. This step presents a normative account of toleration as a general practice of noninterference proper of neutralist political arrangements aimed to protect individual freedom.2 The most recent among such defenses make a further step by offering a conceptual overhaul of toleration. For example, such defenses redescribe toleration as a positive form of recognition or indifference.3 They thus reconceptualize toleration, reinterpreting the reference to disapproval. This twofold strategy is the main critical target of this article. The twofold strategy is partly motivated by an attempt to resist some con- cerns about the complex relationship of toleration with multiple features of 1 Rawls, Political Liberalism, 43; Kant, An Answer to the Question, 12. 2 Jones, Making Sense of Political Toleration; Balint, Respecting Toleration. 3 See, respectively, Galeotti, Toleration as Recognition; Balint, Respecting Toleration. 321

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most