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Probing the threshold regions where the demands of the theory of liberty come into contact with the reality of politics and the state, practical jurisdiction and law, economic regulations and real economic activities one is liable to encounter a notion that may at first appear somewhat paradoxical.
Might it not be that freedom has a more important role to play as a benchmark for the (self-)examination of those either not particularly interested in liberty or recognising freedom as only one value among others, than as the beacon of the remoter and more radical ideals of those who hopefully conceive of liberty as a state of affairs that may once emerge in a pure and perfect form, or very close to such an end state.
Is it not true that even the most (classically) liberal societies still present us with a mixed system that absorbs elements both of a kind approaching the ideal-type of, say, the rule of law or capitalism, as well as elements that are at odds with these norms.
Does not the practical value of the criteria of liberty first and foremost consist in providing a method to evince and rectify the problems entailed in disadvantageous though avoidable transgressions and distortions of (classically) liberal norms.
And is it not the case that the claim that liberty is indivisible depends on the inadmissible notion that the conditions under which liberty applies form a monolithic structure which, in fact, does not exist in reality, just as the rule of law or capitalism will never attain the quality of perfection.
It is indeed a requirement of liberty that certain rules be strictly and generally adhered to; but if this desirable end cannot be fully achieved this does not necessarily imply the collapse of liberty, nor do efforts at ensuring a more complete application become valueless.
The present comment has occurred to me while reading the excellentbook by Stefan Kolev “Neoliberale Staatsverständnisse im Vergleich”, 2013, Lucius & Lucius, Stuttgart.
Written in July 2013
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