Cover

»Autonomie« als Prinzip politischer Rationalität: Eine Blockade unserer politischen Vorstellungskraft?

In: Christian Schmidt und Benno Zabel (Hrsg.), Politik im Rechtsstaat. Baden-Baden: Nomos 2021, 61–82.
Alternative Govern­mentalities Publisher's Website

Abstract

The close coupling of law and politics seems so self-evident that we can only imagine politics without law as arbitrary rule. Together with the idea of freedom through self-government, it constitutes “autonomy” – which for 250 years has been political philosophy’s answer to the question of how to govern in such a way that the governed need not fear those who govern. Yet today, it stands in the way of any invention of new political rationalities; “autonomy,” as an unquestioned solution, has become a dead end for our political imagination. Only a critical rereading of the history of liberalism can lead us out of this aporia without abandoning the important goal of finding a political rationality that allows the governed not to fear the governed.

On the edited volume

At first sight, only the relation between politics and the rule of law is unspectacular. Current quarrels over the politization of the legal system (e.g. in Poland and Hungary) and the juridification of politics (which becomes apparent in the demand for rights) make it obvious that freedom is at stake when tensions between politics and the rule of law run high. This volume analyses from a perspective that unites multiple disciplines’ tendencies towards politization and juridification along with the ideologies that accompany them. It combines theoretical and historical essays with the presentation of current conflicts in Chile, Hungary, Poland and Germany.

With contributions by

Ino Augsberg, Hubertus Buchstein, Marta Bucholc, Jens Hacke, Gábor Halmai, Sabine Hark, Oliver Lembcke, Marina Martinez Mateo, Christian Schmidt, Herline Pauer-Studer, Arnd Pollmann, Grit Straßenberger, Frieder Vogelmann, Tim Wihl und Benno Zabel.

Edited by

Christian Schmidt und Benno Zabel