Liberalismo y derechos virtuales. Apuntes para una sociología del Estado en su continuum histórico

Abstract

This article exercises a merciless critique on the Western political liberal tradition questioning the validity of its social and legal achievements. It contrasts the medieval real state with the liberal virtual state the achievements and credentials of which —human rights, constitutionalism, democracy— even if historically immortal in theory constitute in reality an absolute falsehood. The history of the rule of law is denounced as a ‘“history of exclusions” more than respect; of repression more than rights; of plundering more than liberty; of authoritarianism more than civility. Consequently, the article uncovers the “Manchean myth” of the illustrated modernity: the traditional antagonism between nobility and bourgeoisie is not real but fictitious. The rule of law is nothing more than “the abourgeoisment of nobility and the ennoblement of the bourgeoisie”. The history of the state, it is concluded, has been nothing but a mythicized historical process, premeditated and calculated; more than an entelechy, the rule of law has been a joke since in stead of law, property stands as the only authentic and capable of shaping the patterns of justice, citizenship and “universal morality”.