Postliberal Politics

The present article consists of key extracts from the recently published Adrian Pabst’s book “Postliberal Politics. The Coming Era of Renewal” (2021). According to the author, stability in the West faces the challenges of left and right populism. And if left populism hasn’t survived the trial by real elections, the right populism is quite successful in removing liberal elites from power. At the same time the strong point of the right populism is the provision of a political program, but its weakness is in the absence of any concepts or political instruments for transitions implementation. But forces, - the ultraliberal left and anti-liberal right, - develop various types of identity politics thus undermining the cultural and civilizational fundamental aspects of the West and the feelings of common goal and common destiny. The author opposes those extremes with postliberalism – non-uniform ideological movement directed at overcoming the contradictions of the deadlocked liberal ideology that is characterized by the rise of both left and right populism. According to Adrian Pabst, postliberalism acknowledges the failure of liberal projects and at the same time the necessity to preserve the most valuable liberal aspects in new form. Liberalism with its multiple trends is not beyond hope and some institutions it created are worth preserving. Still liberal ideology lead to the situation when freedom once alienated from self-restraint and mutual obligations turned into unfreedom. Self-destruction of liberal values such as freedom, equality, tolerance and pluralism demonstrates abnormalities that at once distort liberal principles and show liberal ideology logic. Postliberalism is intended to cut short those defects. In particular, postliberal ideology proceeds from acknowledging that the society is based not on some non-personal social contract between individuals as claimed by the liberals from the times of Hobbes and Locke, but appeared as the result of mutual arrangement between generations. Civil liberty does not man freedom from obligations or freedom for the sake of egoistical interests, but liberty to take care of oneself and others. Personality development based on personal independence should be balanced by common well-being. Equality does not mean uniformity but respect for integral virtue. Individual rights should not be downgraded but should be specific and relative due to their connection with obligations towards other people. Postliberalism in this interpretation endeavors to preserve the best gains of liberal ideology while eliminating the threat of blunt authoritarianism that is always concealed in liberal logic.