In the recent literature, a number of political liberals argue that diverse members of society can realize an ideal of community if the members restrict their political deliberations to a set of considerations that all reasonable members can be expected to share qua citizens. While the political liberal proposal of deliberative restraint provides a promising start to understanding community for liberal societies, it misses the necessity of convergence on outcomes for community. This paper defends a convergence requirement for community, discusses how the convergence requirement necessitates qualifying deliberative restraint, and considers the implications of the convergence requirement for political discourse. It concludes by considering the possibility that convergence may be sufficient for community even in the absence of shared reasoning.
Key words: community, convergence justification, political liberalism, public justification, public reason.
