Liberalism: Returning to Its Roots and Recommitting to the Common Good

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Senior Fellow - Political theory

Nicolas Prévélakis is Associate Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at Harvard University, where he teaches the history of political thought.

This essay proposes a reinterpretation of the liberal tradition in light of Western political developments. It traces liberalism’s emergence as a philosophy of individual liberty and the limitation of power and its fragmentation between political, economic, and cultural traditions.

Condemned by Marxist, environmentalist, postcolonial, and nationalist critics, liberalism is now presented as an obsolete idea, incapable of addressing the complexity of the multifaceted aspirations of individuals and systems.

Yet its foundations appear more relevant than ever: responsibility, pluralism, balance.

Liberalism: is a "French-style" Revival Possible?
Not Simply Liberalism, but Liberalisms
A Movement Confronted by External Criticism
Can the Core Principles of Liberalism Be Reconciled?
Liberalism in the Current World
How to Conceive French Liberalism?

In an international context marked by the crisis of democracies and the instability of conventions, this text argues for a revival of French-style liberalism capable of combining liberty, equality, and fraternity.

Dans un contexte international marqué par la crise des démocraties et l’instabilité des conventions, ce texte plaide pour un renouveau du libéralisme à la française capable, précisément, de conjuguer liberté, égalité et fraternité.

This essay was written by Nicolas Prévélakis on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Institut Montaigne, under the direction of Marie-Pierre de Bailliencourt.

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(85 pages)

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