Chantal Mouffe: Between Political Liberalism and Communitarianism

The sixth session of the EPLab Permanent Seminar will be led by Asbel D. Quitunga, with a presentation titled “Chantal Mouffe: Between Political Liberalism and Communitarianism”. The session will take place on 17 March at 10:30 in room A209 at NOVA FCSH (Berna Campus) and will be held in Portuguese.

Abstract

John Rawls’ theory of justice had an enormous impact on the debate that developed in our time around the concept and principles of justice. First published in 1971, his masterpiece entitled A Theory of Justice marked a turning point in relation to the dominant model of the time and became the reference point from which theorists set out to discuss, accept or refute the foundations of justice. For their part, communitarians, particularly Michael Sandel and Michael Walzer, in their works Liberalism and the Limits of Justice and The Spheres of Justice, respectively, developed their critique of Rawls’ theory, denying the priority of the concept of justice and attacking the foundations on which his political liberalism was based. Mouffe presents a version that lies halfway between these two currents in the framework of her project to formulate a radical democracy. She does not abandon the principles of political liberalism, nor does she give up the communitarian thesis on the fundamental role of the community in the construction of these principles. Can she be consistent with her project and overcome this antagonism between liberalism and communitarianism?

Keywords: Political Liberalism; Communitarianism; Chantal Mouffe; Agonistic Pluralism.

More information on the EPLab Permanent Seminar here.