A Plea for a Progressive Alliance in Europe

“All crises begin with the blurring of a paradigm and the consequent loosening of the rules […] finally, the case that will most concern us here, a crisis may end with the emergence of a new candidate for paradigm and with the ensuing battle over its acceptance.” – Thomas Kuhn

The end of liberal order?

Much has been written about the “end of the liberal order” since the first cracks became undeniable in the light of the dual – global economic and European migration – crises of 2008 and 2015. In spite of its critics’ previous slogans and expectations, it is obvious now that the crisis of liberalism does not only threaten profits, global value chains, international trade, minority rights and values of open societies, but ultimately the functioning of our pluralist, representative democracies as well as maintaining peace.

However, the passing of the liberal project is neither inevitable nor necessary. From the structural perspective, it has been only a short-period of time between the fall of communism and the mainstreaming of illiberal populism in 2016 when the liberal project and its political manifestation, liberal democracy, became the only game in town.