{"id":30400,"date":"2018-11-07T12:03:37","date_gmt":"2018-11-07T11:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libmod.de\/?p=30400"},"modified":"2020-12-09T17:22:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:22:41","slug":"liberalism-is-dead-long-live-liberalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libmod.de\/en\/liberalism-is-dead-long-live-liberalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Liber\u00adalism is dead, long live Liberalism!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shutter\u00adstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Over the last 200 years, Liber\u00adalism has been a stunning success story. It brought forward liberty and prosperity for the many instead of privi\u00adleges for the few. Yet, today liberal thinking and politics are under siege. To regain public support, they need a profound update, offering liberal answers to the major challenges our societies are facing: global\u00adization and digital revolution, climate change and global migration, growing inequality and fear of the future.<\/h2>\n

Liber\u00adalism is in trouble. Antiliberal counter-movements are afoot around the globe. Author\u00adi\u00adtarian populists are seizing power in more and more countries. Deep-seated antiliberal tradi\u00adtions in Germany exist at both ends of the political spectrum. When Christian Lindner, leader of the German liberal party FDP, speaks of political Liber\u00adalism, it sounds as if he were talking about a defiant little minority; when others speak of his party, it\u2019s as the German songwriter Franz Josef Degen\u00adhardt once said: Don\u2019t play with the dirty kids, don\u2019t sing their songs.<\/p>\n

Yet we owe Liber\u00adalism much of our modern achieve\u00adments: inalienable human rights, the right to individual self-deter\u00admi\u00adnation, as well as the founda\u00adtions of our democ\u00adratic republic: government by and for the people, free elections, rule of law, protection of minorities, an independent judiciary, freedom of the press, and a dynamic economy based on entre\u00adpre\u00adneurship, compe\u00adtition, and open markets.<\/p>\n

The combi\u00adnation of liberal political systems and capitalist market economies has afforded us a hitherto unknown degree of assurance of justice, individual liberties, and prosperity. By the light of day, Liber\u00adalism is a historic success story. How did it manage to fall into disrepute?<\/p>\n

People are quick to point to neolib\u00ader\u00adalism<\/em>. Even though it stems from very different historical roots, it is often equated with market radicalism today. Its mantra of dereg\u00adu\u00adlation, priva\u00adti\u00adzation, and rigid budgeting has indeed weakened public insti\u00adtu\u00adtions. Dereg\u00adu\u00adlation of financial markets brought about the deep crisis of 2007\/\u200b2008, discred\u00aditing global\u00adization. The growing low-wage sector, precarious work arrange\u00adments, a crass disparity of wealth, and organized tax avoidance by inter\u00adna\u00adtional corpo\u00adra\u00adtions have created a constant ambient noise that is buzzing with a notion of injustice. Liber\u00adalism seems to turn a blind eye to the social question. It sides with the successful rather than with those who struggle. It is no coinci\u00addence that the FDP is still strug\u00adgling with its self-proclaimed label of being the \u201cparty of high-income earners\u201d.<\/p>\n

The liberal camp \u2013 I\u2019m using this term in its European tradition, which is different from the specific meaning of \u201cliberal\u201d in the US \u2014 also offers few convincing solutions concerning the threat to the ecosystems on which our human civilization depends \u2013 climate, soils, oceans. While their caveats of an ecological nanny state are legit\u00adimate, Liberals discredit themselves when they downplay the urgency of ecological transition. Liber\u00adalism has yet to write a playbook for an ecological policy that recon\u00adciles climate protection with a dynamic market economy, sustainable economic growth, and diversity of lifestyles.<\/p>\n

Liberal voids
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are deeper reasons why liberal politics is on the defensive. Classic Liber\u00adalism eschews the question how to maintain social cohesion beyond the invisible hand of the market. To many Liberals, catch\u00adwords such as solidarity or community have a suspi\u00adcious collec\u00adtivist ring to them, as does the notion of an omnipresent welfare state. They consider redis\u00adtri\u00adb\u00adution the work of the devil; a violation of the unadul\u00adterated tenets of market economy.<\/p>\n

The avant-gardes of liberal thought delib\u00ader\u00adately decline to make grand future projec\u00adtions. Their objective is to keep the future open \u2013 it will emerge from the free play of the forces at work, from the sum of individual decisions made by a myriad of actors. Liberal politics is all about trial and error, reform rather than revolution, quiet doubt rather than vocif\u00aderous certainty, compe\u00adtition for the best solution rather than proclaiming grand ideas about how the future is to be arranged. This is wise and humane. Sheer pragmatism, however, falls short. In times of growing uncer\u00adtainty, a solid concept for the future is essential: Who do people trust to best master the challenges of global\u00adization and digital revolution, climate change, and global migration?<\/p>\n

Populists from the left and right are stirring strong emotions. Fear, hatred, pride, nation\u00adalism \u2014 making the champions of liberal democracy look a little bland in comparison. While \u201cconsti\u00adtu\u00adtional patri\u00adotism\u201d is a good idea, it remains an abstract construct. The democ\u00adratic republic is more than the sum of its insti\u00adtu\u00adtions. It relies on joint action by its citizens, on negoti\u00adating common goals. That won\u2019t work without a notion of what we want for our future. Anxiety about the future is the mental sound\u00adboard of author\u00adi\u00adtarians. We need confi\u00addence that we can create a better future rather than dread it as a doomed fate that will inevitably roll over us.<\/p>\n

In a time of turbulent change, we feel an increased need for security and solidarity, for finding assurance in our community. Nation\u00adalists promise social and emotional security by retreating into the confines of our national state and national community as a bulwark against the storms that are raging outside. Liber\u00adalism will only be able to emerge from its defensive corner if we can respond to this conser\u00adv\u00adative need for security and identity and formulate liberal answers to these needs. When Emanuel Macron speaks of a \u201cEurope that protects\u201d, he is hitting a nerve.<\/p>\n

Security in a changing world<\/h2>\n

Economic global\u00adization needs to be embedded in a social and ecological framework. Global migration needs to be regulated. Openness towards techno\u00adlogical innovation needs a minimum of individual ability to keep pace with new technologies as well as a minimum of social security to cushion the fallout from disruptive trans\u00adfor\u00admation. The mother of all liberties is freedom from fear. Those who live in fear of social failure are not free. Real-life freedom also means to be able to move about the public space unafraid. Those who neglect public safety and order are tilling the ground for author\u00adi\u00adtarian populists.<\/p>\n

It is not enough to keep invoking our love of freedom and a defense of liberal values. Modern liber\u00adalism must bridge seeming dichotomies: between freedom and safety, individ\u00adu\u00adality and solidarity, diversity and identity, cosmopoli\u00adtanism and patri\u00adotism, economic dynamics and ecological respon\u00adsi\u00adbility. It must shed its habit of simply pitting \u2018the market\u2019 versus \u2018the state\u2019 and recognize and appre\u00adciate the impor\u00adtance of public insti\u00adtu\u00adtions in upholding equal liberty for all.<\/p>\n

Markets rely on prereq\u00adui\u00adsites they cannot generate on their own: an assurance of justice, social peace, protection of the natural resources that assure our livelihood, a functional set of rules governing compe\u00adtition, a strong science and educa\u00adtional system, a modern infra\u00adstructure. None of this is free. The slogan \u201csmaller government is better\u201d is just as misleading as its opposite.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell: We need a contem\u00adporary renewal of Liber\u00adalism that offers both liberty and security. We must deliver on the liberal promise of equal oppor\u00adtunity and upward social mobility develop a new notion of progress that is more than just a contin\u00adu\u00adation of the status quo. Our confi\u00addence that liberal democracy is and shall remain the more successful, more innov\u00adative, and more just system is in peril. Now is the time to deliver.<\/p>\n

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The German version of this essay was published by the \u201cWELT\u201d, Nov. 1, 2018<\/em><\/p>\n

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