PLURALISM

in social and political thought, the autonomy enjoyed by disparate groups within a societysuch groups as religious groups, trade unions, professional organizations, or ethnic minorities. The term also refers to the doctrine that the existence of such groups is beneficial, a major element in the ideologies of both the liberal Western nations and the Communist nations. Pluralism was stressed most vigorously in England during the early 20th century by a group of writers (including F. Maitland, S.G. Hobson, Harold Laski, R.H. Tawney, and G.D.H. Cole) reacting against what they alleged to be the alienation of the individual under conditions of unrestrained capitalism. It was necessary, they argued, to integrate the individual in a social context that would give him a sense of community; a historical example of such a society was held to be the medieval structure of guilds, chartered cities, villages, monasteries, and universities. Some of the negative aspects of modern industrial society might be overcome, the pluralists argued, by economic and administrative decentralization.