Tragika liberalizma. Pragmatizam i perfekcionizam u liberalnoj pravnoj državi
The Tragedy of Liberalism. Pragmatism and Perfectionism in a Liberal State of Law

Summary/Abstract: The author thinks that liberalism, as a political doctrine, is imanently contradictory, the contradiction being embodied in its two variants. The perfectionist doctrines by William Galston and Joseph Raz advocate liberal forms of good life (autonomy, tolerance, openess to the world), while the antiperfectionist doctrine of John Rawls limits itself to defining the procedural foundations of justice. Raz’s and Galston’s liberal perfectionism is in danger, in the name of liberal values and virtues, of violating the principle of neutrality of political autiiority in relation to individual choice of values, while Rawls’s concept of procedural justice cannot steer clear of the danger that the total permissiveness regarding individual value options eventually undermines the foundations of liberal society. The author concludes that the balance between perfectionism and anti perfectionism is essential for the defence of liberalism. Such argumentational strategy has to take into consideration the liberal notion of justice, the necessity of a liberating democratic politics and the concept of a citizen as a subject who, by practising active tolerance, accepts the responsibility for the community.

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