ABSTRACT
I want to propose a basic tension in liberal thought that also has consequences for a global economic order based on liberal principles. It flows from two major modalities of a liberal posture. One can be called Liberalism of Restraint: it emphasizes tolerance of diversity, moderation, holding back, empathy, non-intervention, and peaceful cooperation. Pluralism rather than universalism will be at the heart of this posture and negative liberty a preference over positive liberty even though that might not always be the case and there can be different priorities in domestic and international politics. The other posture can be called Liberalism of Imposition: it accentuates that liberal principles are morally superior to other principles and universally valid. It supports activism, intervention, and, in the international realm, the change of non-liberal regimes to liberal regimes, not excluding the possible use of force. Universalism is stressed over pluralism, but there is not necessarily agreement among impositionists on the relative importance of negative versus positive liberty (Sørensen 2006). I apply these postures to the current world economic (dis)order; that leads to a pessimistic conclusion concerning the future prospects for a stable liberal world economy. My theoretical basis is that of a skeptical liberal: the progress in the global political economy that liberals talk about is in principle possible, but by no means assured or guaranteed. In relation to this, liberal theory and liberal politics contain tensions and problems that have not been sufficiently recognized. The ambition is to analyze and evaluate these tensions and problems in order to consider the implications for liberal economic order. So the liberal stance needs, true to the pluralism advocated by Helge Hveem (2009), to be supplemented with insights originating in other theoretical traditions.
