Agonistic Liberalism
The term agonistic liberalism appears in John Gray's book Isaiah Berlin from 1995. Gray uses this phrase to describe what he believes is Berlin's theory of politics, namely his support for both value pluralism and liberalism.
More generally, agonistic liberalism could be used to describe any kind of liberalism which claims that its own value commitments do not form a complete vision of politics and society, and that one instead needs to look for what Berlin calls an "uneasy equilibrium" between competing values. Under Gray's understanding, many contemporary liberal theorists would fall in this category, for instance John Rawls and Karl Popper.
Agonistic liberalism is an alternative to Berlin's theory of value pluralism and liberalism. While Berlin claimed equal validity for conflicting liberal views, agonistic liberalism holds that over time solutions may be found that determines which values are correct.
Agonistic liberalism is the theory that conflict rather than discussion is the basis of social change.
Read more about this topic: Straw Dogs: Thoughts On Humans And Other Animals, Political and Philosophical Thought
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“The basic idea which runs right through modern history and modern liberalism is that the public has got to be marginalized. The general public are viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a bewildered herd.”
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