Reflexe

The study examines potential ways to reconstruct liberalism amid challenges that disrupt a productive alliance of liberalism and democracy. It follows the thesis that populism (in the so-called ‘brut’ form) attracts people by affective elements that liberalism (in the narrow sense of the word, as an ideology) lacks. The text argues that these elements are present not only in populism but also in the doctrines of moderate opponents of liberalism, such as communitarianism and democratic socialism. Thus, a vital liberal democracy that seeks to successfully face the challenge of authoritarian populism should be open to ideas from these moderate opponents of liberalism and, for example, be based on a robust notion of positive freedom. In this endeavour to reconstruct and develop contemporary liberal thought, the study reflects especially five books published in Czech in the last few years by both Czech/Slovak (Jan Buráň, Matej Cíbik, Jiří Přibáň) and translated (Timothy Snyder) authors.