Rawls and right-wing populism— A qualified defense of the former: A reply to Gila Stopler

Abstract This reply to Gila Stopler’s provocative piece on the possible complicity of political liberalism and right-wing populism welcomes Stopler’s strategy of identifying structural weaknesses in liberal theory. But it also presents three specific disagreements: first, it is argued that Rawls is much less of a defender of the status quo in really existing liberal democracies than Stopler makes him out to be; second, the argument is advanced that political liberalism has significant resources to counter right-wing populism; and, third and most important, it is claimed, following the work of philosophers such as Gina Schouten, that political liberalism can (and must) incorporate feminist concerns.