Liberalism, modus vivendi, and polycentricity: mapping the terrain

David McCabe

Chapter 1 in Governing Differences, 2025, pp 23-51 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Questions about both the philosophical underpinnings and the appropriate scope of the liberal state have been the object of ongoing philosophical inquiry. In recent years, a growing number of political theorists have turned their attention to two topics that both connect in important ways to those debates over liberalism and have their own intrinsic importance. The first concerns the modus vivendi approach within political theorizing. The second is the exploration of polycentric governance as an alternative to accounts of political power that assume a centralized state with familiar and broad-reaching sovereignty. Though some may see a natural connection between the modus vivendi approach and polycentricity, the relation between these two projects is neither direct nor uncontroversial. Nor is it obvious how polycentricity and modus vivendi stand with respect to the liberal state. This chapter provides an overview of different ways of conceptualizing the relationships among modus vivendi, polycentricity, and liberalism, and explores some of the important challenges facing those different models.

Keywords: Modus vivendi; Polycentricity; Liberalism; Liberal moralism; Political realism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035348572
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