Membership‐Making in Diverse Societies: Revisiting the Idea of Society as a Common Possession

ABSTRACT The traditional aim of Western social democracy has been to create a society that is a ‘common possession’ of its members (in T.H. Marshall's words). Social democratic politics has therefore been both society‐making and membership‐making, orienting people to a shared society as an object of attachment and loyalty, and nurturing membership‐based conceptions of democracy and the welfare state. This aspiration to create a society that is the common possession of its members has underpinned many social justice movements. However, some commentators argue that this model cannot address the most pressing issues of today's world, and that we need to find a way to theorize politics that does not rest on ideas that individuals are ‘members’ of ‘societies’, or on ideas that politics should aim to orient people to a shared society as an object of loyalty and a basis for solidarity. In this article, I explore whether the ideal of society as a common possession of its members can be redeemed in the face of these critiques, and in particular whether it can be pluralized in a way that respects the experiences and aspirations of racialized minorities and Indigenous peoples.