Liberal values and political stabilization in Serbia

Abstract

The paper is an expanded version of the project proposal 'Liberal values and political stabilization in Serbia'. The idea of the proposal is to explore the possibilities of acceptance and stabilization of liberal patterns of distribution of social goods in transitional countries, keeping in mind peculiarities of the Serbian case. Liberalization of these countries is usually an uneasy and uncertain process. There are two kind paradoxes of liberalization. The first concerns the necessity of political incentives for depoliticization of several social spheres. The second is related to possible self-destructive performances of liberal institutions in the process of transition. The stabilization of liberal-democracy in transitional countries is dependent on the capacity of institutions to build within themselves the mechanisms for alleviating these uneasiness. Two of them I find especially important: the system of social responsibilities and public reason.

Keywords

• liberalism
• transition
• stability
• distribution
• consent
• responsibility
• public sphere.