On_Culture (Dec 2020)
Transformations of Liberal Reason: Migration Politics and Shifts in Cultural Self-Interpretation
Abstract
In light of the current multiple crises, authoritarian movements gain new strength. Claiming that globalization and especially migration is endangering social cohesion and national sovereignty, without considering political-economic aspects, they call for a strong state. Along the lines of those claims, they revise what Helmut Dubiel called the “cultural selfinterpretation,” meaning the understanding of the political super- structure of their community. Doing that, liberal values and concepts are re-inter- preted, as can be seen with the “rule of law” for example. From its intrinsic value of strengthening individual claims against the state’s rule, they turn it into a concept of state power, interpreting the “rule of law” as the rule of a mythical legitimized sover- eign. Those re-interpretations — and legal constructs referring to them — will be an- alyzed in this essay. Authoritarian politics and their roots will be regarded in their contradictory relation to (neo-)liberalism as they appear as a critique towards it at first glance. Yet, taking into account early Critical Theory and its analysis of authoritarian- ism, the article aims to show that those tendencies emerge from liberal ideas and ide- als. Seen from this perspective the article promotes the view that rather than a pure defense of liberalism, a materialist examination of liberalism’s inner contradictions is necessary to understand and criticize authoritarianism.
