[6] Levy's influential argument draws on the work of Judith Shklar, who famously argued that the primary concern of liberalism is to explain how the evils of cruelty and terror can be averted.
[5] Levy's book Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom examines two approaches to the relationship between individuals, intermediate groups, and states that feature prominently in liberal thought.
[7] The first approach, which Levy calls pluralist, is wary of the central state and friendly toward local, customary, voluntary, or intermediate bodies, communities, and associations.
Liberals with the rationalist mindset tend to view intermediate groups with skepticism, seeing their distinctions and inequalities as arbitrary, irrational, and inimical to freedom.
They tend to be more friendly to the central state, viewing it as a means of protecting individuals against the local tyrannies of religious and ethnic groups, closed associations, families, and other intermediate bodies.