Anti-discrimination Theory and the Reshaping of American Democracy

FAIN: FT-53451-05

Thomas Francis Powers
University of Minnesota, Duluth (Duluth, MN 55812-2403)

My objective is to provide a general interpretive framework for understanding the new commitment in American life to the principles and ideals connected with the fight against discrimination. I focus on the relationship between a constellation of new concerns arising out of recent civil rights reforms (which I term anti-discrimination theory) and America’s traditional “liberal” theoretical framework. I trace the relationship between anti-discrimination theory and traditional liberalism in three areas – in American constitutional theory, in a new language of morality, and in a new understanding of pluralist theory. This project is intended for publication as a book.