The Great Divorce: The Western Disagreement About Constitutionalism
Andrea Pin is a full professor of comparative public law at University of Padova (Italy).
“Well, that is a plan. I am perfectly ready to consider it. Of course . . . . I should want a guarantee that you are taking me to a place where I shall find . . . an atmosphere of free inquiry . . . .”
“No,” said the other. . . . “No atmosphere of inquiry, for I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.”
“Ah, but we must all interpret those beautiful words in our own way! For me there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind, must it not? . . . [T]o travel hopefully is better than to arrive.”
—C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce
Introduction
The wave of narratives that are increasingly questioning, challenging, or even dismantling some of the fundamentals of liberal democracies in the West has many names, including illiberalism, populism, and authoritarianism, among others. The growing body of scholarship aimed at vindicating liberalism—from Cass Sunstein to Michael Walzer to Francis Fukuyama, just to name a few—confirms its impact. Interestingly, this wave has often found purchase among Christians and especially Catholics, who reject liberal constitutionalism for various, and sometimes varying, reasons. However, one charge purports to strike at the core of liberalism: its individual-centered, freedom-based approach.