The contemporary world is complex and is characterized by new normative challenges with regards to living conditions and political organization, both within the borders of sovereign states and globally. Such challenges require interdisciplinary analyses of a number of intertwined subjects. Varieties of Liberalism: Contemporary Challenges presents an important contribution to this pressing task. Relying on the cooperation of UiT The Arctic University of Norway research group Pluralism, Democracy and Justice, and the Civic Constellation project from Spain’s National Research Fund, the book is the outgrowth of the conference “Themes in Contemporary Ethics and Political Philosophy”, held in Tromsø in August 2012. An international array of scholars from universities in Brazil, France, Norway and Spain are brought together here, and combine normative reflections, conceptual analysis, case-studies and historical accounts. Philosophical liberalism provides the dominant perspective in contemporary political and social philosophy, and the majority of the authors take one version or another as their starting point, bringing together various different critical perspectives. Since it is crucial to sort out what an embracing of liberalism means and what a criticism of liberalism is directed at, the introduction of the book situates the chapters in relation to the disparate uses of ‘liberalism’. The sixteen chapters are distributed into three parts, namely, Free Speech and Deliberation, Citizenship and Democracy, and Justice, Borders and International Law. Of interest to a wide, interdisciplinary readership, Varieties of Liberalism responds to questions such as: Do contemporary democracies live up to their own ideals? How do these democracies cope with the issues of free speech, religious diversity, migration, indigenous communities, and the scientific and technological development? How ought civic education to be regulated in pluralist democracies? Who are the rightful owners of common goods? As is evident from this representative list, the book addresses both the intellectual and the practical challenges of contemporary liberalism.

The essays in this volume present versions of feminism that are explicitly liberal, or versions of liberalism that are explicitly feminist. By bringing together some of the most respected and well-known scholars in mainstream political philosophy today, Amy R. Baehr challenges the reader to reconsider the dominant view that liberalism and feminism are incompatible. Visit our website for sample chapters!

This book examines contemporary changes in labor market institutions in the United States, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and the Netherlands, focusing on developments in three arenas - industrial relations, vocational education and training, and labor market policy. While confirming a broad, shared liberalizing trend, it finds that there are in fact distinct varieties of liberalization associated with very different distributive outcomes. Most scholarship equates liberal capitalism with inequality and coordinated capitalism with higher levels of social solidarity. However, this study explains why the institutions of coordinated capitalism and egalitarian capitalism coincided and complemented one another in the "Golden Era" of postwar development in the 1950s and 1960s, and why they no longer do so. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, this study reveals that the successful defense of the institutions traditionally associated with coordinated capitalism has often been a recipe for increased inequality due to declining coverage and dualization. Conversely, it argues that some forms of labor market liberalization are perfectly compatible with continued high levels of social solidarity and indeed may be necessary to sustain it.

Michael Freeden explores the concept of liberalism, one of the longest-standing and central political theories and ideologies. Combining a variety of approaches, he distinguishes between liberalism as a political movement, as a system of ideas, and as a series of ethical and philosophical principles.

Like its widely praised predecessor False Dawn, Two Faces of Liberalism, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as ''elegant and powerful,'' offers a thoughtful and provocative analysis of the liberal tradition in politics. John Gray, an eminent professor at the London School of Economics, ''picks large and interesting topics and says arresting things about them,'' according to the New York Review of Books. Two Faces of Liberalism argues that, in its beginning, liberalism contained two contradictory philosophies of tolerance. In one, it put forward the enlightenment vision of a universal civilization. In the other, it framed terms for peaceful coexistence between warring communities and between different ways of life. In this major contribution to political theory, Gray's new book ''takes us beyond the current debate''(The New York Times Book Review) of traditional liberalism to keep up with the complex political realities of today's increasingly divided world.

One of the world's leading political thinkers explores the history, nature, and prospects of the liberal tradition The Making of Modern Liberalism is a deep and wide-ranging exploration of the origins and nature of liberalism from the Enlightenment through its triumphs and setbacks in the twentieth century and beyond. The book is the fruit of the more than four decades during which Alan Ryan, one of the world's leading political thinkers, reflected on the past of the liberal tradition—and worried about its future. This is essential reading for anyone interested in political theory or the history of liberalism.

Liberalisms, a work first published in 1989, provides a coherent and comprehensive analytical guide to liberal thinking over the past century and considers the dominance of liberal thought in Anglo-American political philosophy over the past 20 years. John Gray assesses the work of all the major liberal political philosophers including J. S. Mill, Herbert Spencer, Karl Popper, F. A Hayek, John Rawls and Robert Nozick, and explores their mutual connections and differences.