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22 Const. Pol. Econ. 1 (2011)

handle is hein.journals/constpe22 and id is 1 raw text is: Const Polit Econ (2011) 22:1 20 DOI 10.1007/s10602-O1-9090-8 Liberal constitutionalism, constitutional liberalism and democracy Viktor J. Vanberg Published online: 4 March 2010 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract The tension that is often seen to exist between the ideals of liberalism and of democracy is examined in this paper in light of the distinction between two liberal outlooks at constitutional regimes, namely, on the one side, a liberal con- stitutionalism that focuses on the need to provide institutional safeguards of indi- vidual liberty as private autonomy and, on the other hand, a constitutional liberalism that focuses on the need to respect the freedom of individuals to choose the con- stitutional environment in which they wish to live. It is argued that a liberalism that consistently extends its fundamental ideal of individual sovereignty to the level of constitutional choice can be reconciled with the basic democratic ideal of citizen sovereignty. Keywords Constitutionalism - Liberalism - Democracy JEL classification B52 - K10 P16 1 Introduction: liberalism and democracy In a much discussed article Francis Fukuyama (1989)1 diagnosed the collapse of the communist empire, in a Hegelian spirit, as the end of history, marked by humankind's final arrival at the definitive institutional solutions to the problems of how to organize its economic and political affairs: market economy and liberal democracy. We know now that the author's prediction of the history that was to unfold post 1989 was overly optimistic, in particular in not anticipating the The article was later expanded into a best selling book (Fukuyama 1992). V. J. Vanberg (E) Walter Eucken Institut, Freiburg, Germany e-mail: vvanberg@vwl.uni-freiburg.de I_ Springer

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