Introduction: Liberalism between promise and practice

At the end of the twentieth century two developments stand out as challenges to liberalism. First, within established liberal societies multiculturalism and multiethnicism have emerged as social realities that seek accommodation within the liberal framework. But at the same time, fighting for their autonomy as groups rather than as individuals, these claims for an even more inclusive theory and practice of liberalism undermine, at least prima facie, the very framework they wish to expand.