LIBERALISM AND RIGHTS: BETWEEN THE CIVILIZATION CRISIS AND THE RADICAL CRITICISM

Abstract

Liberal-democratic political systems are in crisis. Certain positions attribute this crisis to the tearing apart of the social integration mechanisms based on the search for equal opportunities, the exaltation of work ethics and the legitimization of hierarchies resulting from meritocratic processes. This article argues that integration problems are only the intermediate manifestation of a deeper civilizational crisis caused by the deployment of Capitalism in people’s lives. Given this finding, the following question arises: Can a renewed commitment to citizen rights restore stability to liberal-democratic political systems and eliminate the authoritarian threats that overwhelm them? The answer to this question will pose a contradiction: to rescue the liberal ideology by appealing to rights, implies they object to private property, representative democracy and the paradigm of progress, aspects that would lead to a radical critique of liberalism itself.  Under these critical dimensions, the need to think of the link between rights and democracy under other criteria of dignity, human fulfillment and production of common life arises.