Summary

This book argues that we would be very foolish to abandon the sense of justice that lies at the core of the social democratic approach to political life. The book challenges the view that the liberal tradition is best characterized by its embrace of key values, such as freedom, autonomy, self-realization, and with the importance accorded to the virtue of tolerance. A competing social democractic/Rawlsian understanding of liberalism is presented and compared with major rival ideological orientations on both the left and the right of the political spectrum.