| Summary: | Part of a special issue on some of the provocative issues that inhere in the idea of a “decent society” and that are raised by Avishai Margalit's book The Decent Society. The writer considers what the remedies are for indecent, uncivil societies enmeshed in a global economy that permeates local political and social institutions and that affects the categories and motives of individuals. She offers a Marxist analysis combined with a critique of the politics of cultural identity, demonstrating that when the overlapping consensus on decency erodes and deep economic divisions threaten political unity, deliberate attempts should be made to strengthen the intersecting networks of civic alliances. She contends that focusing on the mistaken essentialism of cultural, racial, gender, or religious identity is likely to entrench differences. Furthermore, she maintains that such practice runs the risk of turning them into differences about the conditions for decency.
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