Abstract

The essay proposes a conceptual analysis of authoritarian liberalism in Europe, exploring this concept in political philosophy to critically analyse the models of ordoliberalism and neoliberalism. The concept of authoritarian liberalism, first developed by Heller in 1932 and then used by Marcuse and Polanyi to explain the connection between «strong state» authoritarianism and economic (market) liberalism, has been invoked during the eurocrisis to highlight the growing overregulation of political processes. In political and philosophical studies on authoritarian liberalism, two conceptual approaches can be distinguished: an analysis of authoritarianism underlying European ordoliberalism carried out in contemporary critical theory and an investigation of authoritarian liberalism as an effective and rational strategy for managing market economy in neoliberal theory. Therefore, authoritarian liberalism in Europe is conceptualized as a political synthesis of authoritarian forms of government and neoliberal economic goals and its actualization is associated with periods of economic crises, such as the interwar period of the 1930s and the current eurocrisis.