Abstract
European integration can be seen as a largely ‘liberal’ project. Since its inception, this project has, however, strongly emphasised the features of economic liberalism, neglecting other essential elements of the liberal tradition, including the limitation of political power, the defence of individual freedoms (not only in the economic sphere) and the promotion of life chances for all the members of the polity. The ‘economistic sliding’ of European liberalism is partly responsible for the current malaise of the European Union and should be countered by launching a comprehensive agenda of ‘liberal’ transformation, in the richer and wider sense of the word.
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Notes
For an illustration and discussion of these authors, cf. Freeden (1998).
A similar argument is suggested by Freeden (1998), according to whom, many political economists should, in fact, be considered as ‘false liberals’.
It should be noted that American philosophical liberalism has also offered a libertarian refounding of laissez faire liberialism (e.g., Nozick, 1974). Nozick's theory remains, however, a ‘theory of justice’ and envisages quite dramatic forms of market ‘rectification’ in those cases when the market violates the principles of justice outlined by the theory. Nozick's ideas have exerted some influence also on the European debate, especially on rightist intellectuals. However, such debate has drawn inspiration almost exclusively from the pars destruens of Nozick, that is, from his attack against ‘big government’ and his praise of the free market and private property, neglecting almost entirely Nozick's pars construens, that is, the principles and institutions that ought to be respected in order to safeguard the equity of the market, in a libertarian perspective.
If treated as an absolute criterion and as an ‘unmitigated good’, the principle of non-discrimination can, of course, lead to undesirable consequences in terms of social cohesion and political legitimacy (see Scharpf, 2007).
It is obvious that in proposing a synthesis, that is, a balanced compromise between different values (and in particular, ‘liberty’ and ‘equality’) liberalism must move beyond its primogenital boundaries, that is, those relating to ‘negative freedom’, liberty understood as ‘non-interference’ (Berlin, 1969). What characterises the liberal synthesis remains, however, the lexicographic priority accorded to negative freedom with respect to all other final values considered as worthy of some sort of ‘balancing’. For a vigorous statement of this position (and a critique of all self-declared liberalisms that violate the primacy of negative freedom and/or ‘over-balance’ towards other values) see Besussi (2007).
The European Commission has made a step in this direction in a recent communication that outlines a ‘life-chances social vision for Europe’ (EC, 2007).
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Ferrera, M. A Less Fragile, if More Liberal Europe. Eur Polit Sci 8, 201–211 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2008.55
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/eps.2008.55