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The Politics of Human Perfection and the Politics of Human Imperfection: Chantal Mouffe versus Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens on European Inequalities



Author(s)

Małgorzata Borkowska-Nowak

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DOI:10.17265/2328-2134/2016.10.005

The title of this paper refers to Michael Oakeshott’s distinction between the politics of faith and the politics of scepticism. The “faith” expresses a belief in the capacity of government to concentrate all the power and resources upon the project of human improvement and perfection, while the “scepticism” is the politics of the powerless in which government cannot produce perfection and enjoys only limited opportunity of directing the activities of its subjects. The aim of this article is to revise Oakeshott’s distinction in order to apply it to the discussion on inequalities affecting Europe. This discussion held by Chantal Mouffe, Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens focused on issues such as: modern patterns of inequality, the coexistence of different ethnic, religious and political forms of life, “legitimization” of social inequalities, the institutionalization of norms of equality, the problem of recognition, the common identity and so on. The key question is: How the values of equality and justice are best realized in the structure of modern society? To answer this question, it is necessary not only to assess critilically the authority of governments, but also to examine possible ways of development of the idea of liberal democracy and power relations in contemporary political sociétés. What is our perspective on the way to solve these problems—the reinvention of politics or democratizing democracy? Even if this research will not help us to find the best political project, however we may be less often cheated in this discussion by irrelevant and ambiguous arguments.

 human perfection, human imperfection, inequalities, liberal democracy, globalization

Borkowska-Nowak, M. (2016). The politics of human perfection and the politics of human imperfection: Chantal Mouffe versus Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens on European Inequalities. International Relations and Diplomacy, 4(10), 641-649.