Politicizing Political Liberalism: On the Containment of Illiberal and Antidemocratic Views.

• Date: 01 December 2024
• Author: Wilson, Dwight
• Published date: 01 December 2024

Badano, Gabriele, and Nuti, Alasia. Politicizing Political Liberalism: On the Containment of Illiberal and Antidemocratic Views. United Kingdom, OUP Oxford, 2024. 224 pages. Hardcover, $100.00.

The underlying rules of a political regime typically operate quietly in the background. Our own form of democratic governance and its underlying liberal political philosophy are usually treated as common sense and eternal, in no need of defense. A global turn toward explicitly illiberal ideologies has caught many defenders of liberalism flatfooted, therefore. Abstruse debates around the philosophy of liberalism have always quietly bubbled among academics. As authoritarian political movements enjoy electoral success around the globe, though, the value and defense of liberalism are not only academic questions, but ones that demand practical answers. In intellectual contests, however, liberalism has always suffered a handicap against its challengers.

For defenders of liberalism, one of its strengths is that its principles are founded in reasoned justifications. Reason guides us to the...