Our project takes as a starting point the emerging consensus regarding profound governance, political, and cultural divisions in the U.S. and around the world. The project will diagnose factors fueling the crisis and articulate self-governing solutions, not only in theoretical terms but also in in applied governance and institutional terms. By bringing perspectives across diverse theoretical and empirical domains, this endeavor will create an global community of scholars and public intellectuals dedicated to these tasks.
Our project will transform public discourse and policy solutions towards these governance challenges by a) reinvigorating a theoretical approach at the intersection of polycentrism and modus vivendi theories of pluralism; b) fieldwork that explores the conditions under which modus vivendi emerges; c) public engagement and dissemination of ideas through media and innovative online platforms. By melding approaches to self-governance and pluralism, this project creates conceptual and analytical resources for new insights and solutions.
Polycentricity—a classical liberal approach—is a tool to operationalize modus vivendi claims that allow citizens to embody value pluralism. A challenge is to understand trade-offs, processes and manners of negotiation, and rules of conflict resolution to identify legitimate political arrangements that stem social conflict.
