This ambitious and sweeping book presents a powerful argument against
moral relativism and in favor of the objectivity of a theory of
democratic individuality. Unlike much recent work in this field, the
book does not simply adumbrate such a view. Rather, it develops the
parallels between various versions of scientific and moral realism, and
then reinterprets the history and internal logic of democratic theory,
maintaining, for example, that the abolition of slavery represents
genuine moral progress. The book also recasts the clashes between
Marxist and Weberian, radical and liberal sociologies in the light of
these moral claims, and sketches the institutions of a radical
democracy.