American liberalism and ideological change

by Leonard A. Williams

Liberalism's history is marked by a sense of crisis and discontent, as well as a proliferation of critics and challengers. Despite the many competitors that liberalism now faces - including neoliberalism, neoconservatism, the New Right, communitarianism, and feminism - it remains our dominant public philosophy. Williams examines the arguments made by critics as they have sought to modify or replace liberalism, and he explains the process of both radical and limited degrees of ideological change. Through a critique of recent political thought drawn in part from the works of Althusser, Gadamer, Habermas, and Ricoeur, the author concludes that ideological change is a complex, multidimensional process. He proposes an evolutionary theory of change. Since any new ideology must coexist with previously held values and ideas, Williams writes, ideological change is most likely to proceed through the revival of submerged, forgotten, or marginalized strains of the dominant tradition of American li