ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I argue that there is a compelling reason to prefer a convergence account of public reason’s structure over a consensus account. Only the former permits to reconcile a public reason liberalism with political perfectionism. The former should be reconcilable with the latter because an anti-perfectionist public reason liberalism imposes severe restrictions on the scope of what liberal states can legitimately do which in turn deprive them of important means to ward of illiberal threats to their well-functioning or even their existence. Thus, what speaks in favor of a convergence account of public reason’s structure is that it allows constructing a perfectionist public reason liberalism which is far better suited to deal with anti-liberal and anti-democratic challenges than an anti-perfectionist public reason liberalism.
