Либерализам и демократија– или о једном недавном покушају помирења непомирљивог

An enquiry into the relationship between liberalism and democracy represents the major preoccupation for modern political theory. In this article, two approaches are being used in order to understand the nature of this relationship: analysis historical components of this relationship and analysis of normative foundations of both liberalism and democracy. The aim of these approaches is to show that liberalism and democracy are neither compatible nor complementary concepts. Moreover, the highest point of their mutual relationship is the relationship of what can be called „cohabitation“. In that sense, the thesis of Victor J. Vanberg by which liberalism and democracy are in some kind of natural symbiosis, owing to the same normative premise (individual sovereignty) and the same mode of relation (voluntary agreement) present among members of hypothetical social contract, is being examined. This Vanberg’s thesis is shown to be incorrect due to the several reasons: generally problematic positioning of liberalism and democracy, inappropriate mixing of normative level with methodological one, using the term „voluntary agreement“ in too narrow sense. The intentions of the critique of Vanberg’s attempt to “reconcile irreconcilable” is not just to present misguided arguments of this author, but also to show that, generally speaking, liberalism and democracy are two irreconcilable worlds and two more than different political philosophies.