Neoliberalism, the Security State, and the Quantification of Reality by Lea David R.;

Author:Lea, David R.; [Lea, David R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

The “Libertarian-Universalistic” versus the “Traditionalist-Communitarian”

Bornschier finds the opposition of values particularly interesting in so far as it mirrors an intellectual shift which parallels the political reorientation in the lines of conflict. The older opposition was one between the state and the market and represents the old axis of values according to Bornschier; the new so-called cultural axis opposes universalistic positions advocating autonomy and free choice of lifestyles against an emphasis on tradition. Referring to work of Kitschelt, Bornschier states that the latter distinction has its basis in different conceptions of the community, where one pole represents the values of equality and liberty in a self-organized community and the other pole the conception of a community structured by the values of paternalism and corporatism.40 The latter emergent opposition is termed by Bornschier the “libertarian-universalistic,” the antithesis of the “traditionalist-communitarian” position. In so far as the political issues, which have arisen relatively recently, are ones of values and lifestyles, the polarizing opposition is interpreted as between libertarian and authoritarian values. One observes that with the movement toward the traditionalist communitarian position, values lose their universal character and become the possession of the particular group. For example, “freedom” no longer has universal application but becomes something which some groups possess and others do not have. Thus ex-President George W. Bush famously explained the motivation of the Iraqi insurgency in the statement “They envy our freedoms.”41 Given the ex-president’s policies were seen to symbolize and exacerbate intergroup conflict between the Western and Moslem world, we perceive an alignment close to the traditionalist communitarian pole, which in contradiction to rhetoric of personal liberty meant a suppression of personal freedom through increased surveillance and the suspension of traditional liberties, thus confirming the more authoritarian orientation that characterizes the “traditionalist-communitarian” position.

To summarize, the traditional opposition that existed during the Cold War period in which the ideological conflict was emphasized in differences of economic theory and policy, now after the fall of the Soviet Union, has been replaced, certainly in Europe, by the politics of identity in opposition to what Bornschier calls a libertarian universalistic position that encompasses the right to difference, societal permissiveness, and support for supranational integration in the European Union. One can also see elements of this polar opposition in America. Certainly it is arguable that the previous presidency of George W. Bush achieved its electoral success through heavy reliance on the politics of identity with its emphasis on values which had a moral, religious, and family orientation. Bornschier notes that one can assume that European electors voted for right wing populist parties despite the parties’ economic profile—that is, their market liberal stance.42 Similarly, the U.S. Republican party was able to align a working-class electorate along lines describing a collective national identity through these identity issues, despite promoting economic policies that were antithetical to working class interests, such as greater tax breaks for the wealthy and the rolling back of social welfare programs. Under the “Project for the New American Century,” the assumed goal was

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