Political Freedom as an Open Question

• Authors: Karol Chrobak

Abstracts

EN

This essay diagnoses the condition of contemporary liberal democracies. It assumes that the current crisis of democracy is not the result of an external ideological threat, but it is the result of the lack of a coherent vision of democracy itself. The author recognises that the key symptom of the contemporary crisis is the decreasing involvement of citizens in public life and their growing reluctance to participate in public debate. He claims that the reason for this is the increasing social polarisation. The article considers two forms of polarisation: vertical (on the line: politicians–voters) and horizontal (on the line of ideological social divisions). The first form is illustrated by Colin Crouch’s considerations, while the second one by Fareed Zakaria’s thoughts. What finds its manifestation in both cases is the phenomenon of citizens’ resignation from participation in the public debate; in the first case it is because of the lack of faith in the effectiveness of this type of opiniongiving mechanism, while in the second case it is because of the lack of recognition of other political and ideological options in society. These reflections are concluded in the postulate that the basic task facing democracy today is to maintain the public sphere as open as possible, i.e. not excluding any ideological position in advance. This kind of conclusion is illustrated with the concepts of Chantal Mouffe (political perspective) and Helmuth Plessner (philosophical-anthropological perspective).

Keywords

EN

democracy; political freedom; social polarisation; post-democracy; illiberal democracy; liberalism

• Publisher: Ośrodek Badań Filozoficznych - Centre for Philosophical Research
• Journal: Avant
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 59-76

Dates

published

2019

Contributors

author

Karol Chrobak

• Warsaw University of Life Sciences – SGGW, Warsaw, Poland

Identifiers

DOI

10.26913/avant.2019.01.05

Biblioteka Nauki

2200444