BOOK REVIEW

Among political theorists there is a dispute over the status of ideal theory [see, for instance, arguments and thought experiments concerning questions such as: What is justice? or What rights do we owe each other? As such, ideal theory will always have a place in philosophy departments. However, recent critics argue that debates in political philosophy and po-litical theory should be consistent with the insights of the social sciences, particularly economics and sociology. Levy belongs to the critics ’ camp. He begins his excellent Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom with a deconstruction of purely theoretical accounts of how liberals should view the existence of distinct associations and communities within society. Such accounts are close to the hearts of many libertarians and classical liberals. The ‘‘utopia’ ’ sketched by Robert Nozick (1974) in Anarchy, State, and Utopia and the framework outlined by Chandran Kukathas (2003) in his Liberal Archipelago are based on the idea that indi-viduals can sort themselves in such communities in order to provide governance and local public goods without reliance on coercion by the state. Under such theories, an individual’