Pluralism in the United States

Pluralism in the United States

I believe that our democracy can be best described by the pluralist theory. Pluralism is a condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist. Two ideas in our society support this theory: 

"first, that men and women of different religions, ethnicities, and races can live together in a single commonwealth; and second, that they can govern themselves democratically, arguing and deciding as free and equal citizens"(Michael Walzer).

Political pluralism, the representation of and participation by numerous and competing groups organized around class, racial, ethnic, and cultural interests, is one of the hallmarks of American Democracy. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the "typical American" was White, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant. But during the 19th century, immigrants from Europe, Asia, Middle East, Latin America, and Africa brought their culture to the US exposing the "typical American" to new religious beliefs and cultural beliefs. Because of this huge variety of people that have different views and backgrounds, the groups need to compromise and agree on conflicts.


This affects our society today because the government has to take consideration of all these groups. This may be ineffective as different groups have different agendas. One example of this is the confederate statues. The mayors of the towns that have the statues need to recognize the different points of views of their citizens because of their different race and culture. For instance, Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans addresses this issue and makes the decision to remove the statues because he realizes the offensiveness of the statues and how hard it would be for a black parent to explain to their child why the statue overlooks the city.  The government realizes that the country is no longer a homogeneous group of people but a diverse one and we can see that the diversity growing rapidly.


Links for further reading
http://ourpluralhistory.stcc.edu/resources/Curriculum/TheIdeaofPluralism.pdf
https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/centers/boisi/pdf/bc_papers/BCP-Pluralism.pdf