A ATUALIDADE DO LIBERALISMO POLÍTICO DE BOBBIO NA ÉPOCA DO LIBERALISMO ECONÔMICO E DO POPULISMO AUTORITÁRIO

Abstract

Abstract

THE ACTUALITY OF BOBBIO'S POLITICAL LIBERALISM IN THE ERA OF ECONOMIC LIBERALISM AND AUTHORITARIAN POPULISM.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, liberal intellectuals expressed the cautious hope that the closing of the historical period of the Cold War would open a new era of expansion of the Democratic Rule of Law in the world. This hope has been fulfilled in part (the third wave of Huntington), but is now in crisis both in the consolidated democratic regimes and in the new political regimes that have left authoritarian regimes. Countries that have not historically experienced liberal democracy, such as China and Russia, are governed by regimes of economic liberalism and political authoritarianism; the Arabian springs, in most cases, did not result in democratic regimes, but in civil wars and/or military dictatorships; and in countries of democratic tradition such as Europe and the United States, the political ideology that grows most is extreme right populism. Bobbio would be concerned about this movement, because it was in favour of political liberalism, but maintained severe restrictions on economic liberalism, and was also a critic of populism, which he considered a form of plebiscitary democracy with authoritarian features. Given this context, we want to discuss the timeliness of Bobbio’s liberalism, in the hope that we are not watching the "last chapters" of a long and glorious tradition. We will do this by analysing three different types of liberalism (political, economic and social), and three different types of democracy (elitist, plebiscitary and participatory), linking them to one another in the quest for "the best form of government". Finally, we will make some considerations about the Brazilian political situation in this context.

Keywords. Political Liberalism; Economic liberalism; democracy; populism; authoritarianism.