№ 4 - 2014
Fishman L.G.
LIBERAL CONSENSUS: THE DRIFT FROM NEOLIBERALISM TO COMMUNITARIANISM?

The article is devoted to the crisis of liberal ideological consensus. It is shown that liberalism is hard to consider as meta-ideology today. It implies the need for at least reformation of ideological consensus, if not its radical change. There are two ideologies which pretend to be the new meta-ideology, namely neoliberalism and communitatianism. These ideologies are trying to solve the problem of contradictions between the morality, institutionalized in the framework of welfare state, and the Modern background. It is shown that neoliberalism cannot successfully perform the function of meta-ideology because of its undisguised class character. In this regard, the author considers the prospects of communitarianism as a more adequate candidate for the role of meta-ideology. Communitarianism is interpreted as a kind of experimental laboratory of liberal-conservative-socialist consensus. Just as in the melting crucible, the problem of ideological consensus is melted in a new version in this “laboratory”. This article argues that new, supposedly communitarian, format of ideological consensus will be crucial also for Russia. A search for an “ideology for Russia” cannot lead to anything meaningful, until reformation of ideological consensus takes place.