To share a common life

Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share in a common life. … For this is how we learn to negotiate and abide our differences, and how we come to care for the common good.
Michael Sandel, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, as quoted by Tom Friedman in This Column Is Not Sponsored by Anyone http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/opinion/sunday/friedman-this-column-is-not-sponsored-by-anyone.html?_r=0