Political-philosophical cleaning in times of plurality and frenetic standstill. On the book Liberal Democracy in Times of Crisis: The Perspective of Political Philosophy by Pavel Dufek, Jiří Baroš, Sylvie Bláhová, Tereza Křepelová and Patrik Taufar.
Abstract
A group of authors from the Department of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Studies in Brno comes up with a publication that aims to introduce contemporary political-theoretical debates over some basic aspects of liberal democracy such as majoritarian decision-making, the idea of human dignity, or the relationship between democracy and human rights. However, the book is not a mere textbook overview, but critically evaluates the investigated conceptions.
Numerous contributions in the volume perceive the excessive amount of theoretical innovations rushing to save liberal democracy as a problem. The expansion of theories leads to an incomprehensible cacophony coming from within the discipline of political theory / political philosophy.
Thus, the book tries to systematize contemporary debates and to clarify basic concepts. It also addresses the tension between the necessity of taking legitimate and binding collective decisions and the fact of deep diversity in contemporary societies as a fundamental matter.
In the last chapter, Pavel Dufek examines the theories of public justification as a potentially suitable inspiration for further inquiries. This review aims to familiarize the reader with the basic structure and arguments of the book.
The review also tries to put the debates analyzed in the book in the context of other issues concerning our late modern / postmodern condition, especially those related to social acceleration and transformations of public space.