1 - Introduction

Summary

Chapter 1 introduces the motivating problem and the central contribution of the book. The chapter begins by observing that even though difference and disagreement can be valuable for liberal democracy, their expression can “overheat,” strain liberal democratic institutions, and leave the polity vulnerable to the growing influence of autocratic political forces. The chapter posits that the more citizens share in “role-based constitutional fellowship,” the more a liberal democracy can harness the benefits of difference and disagreement while sidestepping the potential perils of difference and disagreement. Under role-based constitutional fellowship, citizens share in a culture of trust where they feel united in the general effort to preserve liberal democracy. This culture of trust can emerge because citizens (perhaps unwittingly at first) observe a division of labour; they behave in different ways, according to which spheres of activity they find themselves in and according to what normative roles they find themselves occupying within those spheres. This chapter characterizes fellowship as a “negative idealistic” perspective that lies between “deliberative” and “realist” or “agonist” conceptions of democracy.