Critical Remarks On The Contemporary European Liberal Paradigm

Abstract

The concept of authoritarian liberalism formulated by Hermann Heller in the twilight of the Weimar Republic illuminates an epochal change: it is not what he sarcastically called the “miracles wrought by a dictatorship,” but what would precede it, namely the undermining of democratic achievements by the liberals. The state intervenes in the economy to solve the crises caused by “democratic disorder” and elevates the democratic frontier to an ineradicable precondition of the liberal economy. On the one hand, this article aims to demonstrate the relevance of the concept, in particular by addressing the possible existence of an authoritarian European liberalism. On the other hand, it aims to show that repression aimed at restricting individual freedoms is not a necessary component of this concept: for liberalism to be labelled authoritarian, it is sufficient that it removes the
sphere of economic freedoms from the availability of democratic deliberation.

Keywords

authoritarian liberalism

Hermann Heller

ordoliberalism

neoliberalism

democratic deficit

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