WHY IS TOLERATION STILL A PROBLEM?

In this book I discuss the theory and practice of toleration, and ask whether liberal doctrine is sufficiently well equipped to address all those contemporary situations that give rise to issues of toleration. These issues arise whenever an individual or a group attempts to check or to interfere with the behavior or practices of others which they dislike or of which they disapprove. They also arise when an individual or group resists the interference and control of others regarding their own behavior. These questions acquire a political dimension when two opposing parties fail to find an accommodation, either by tolerating each other's views, or by means of repression. If neither party gives in, political authority is called upon to solve the conflict. Questions of toleration become directly political when the third party is a government or a political agent.

For this kind of issue, which we can recognize as pertaining to toleration, the liberal tradition has developed a well-defined interpretive framework and a highly refined normative doctrine. This has been implemented through the establishment of legal rights which have been constitutionally granted and which are firmly entrenched in the culture and practice of liberal democracy. Consequently, it is not clear why any politically relevant problem of toleration should arise in a liberal democratic regime. The first part of this book focuses on this question: why is toleration still a problem in the world of liberal democracy?