Modern societies appear to be going through a phase of dehierarchization , that is, a change in the way of governance of nation states, from direction of, to cooperation with, civil society; and in more general terms political pluralization , the emergence of “polities” other than the nation state. The paper argues that one of the most stressing problems of political pluralization is the co-existence of mutually effacing or contradictory systems of political norms. To tackle this problem of incompossibility , it has been suggested that policy teloi , shared conceptions giving direction to cooperative political ventures, in particular sustainable development , could be helpful. This article investigates whether sustainable development as a policy telos can tackle incompossibility, both in liberal (democratic) and non-liberal (democratic) societies. The paper concludes that its best chances of being temporarily successful lie in understanding it in the broadest sense possible—particularly if one values moral pluralism.