Una originale genealogia del liberalismo americano: le tesi di Paul W. Kahn

An Original Genealogy of American Liberalism: Some Remarks on Paul Kahn’s Theses - An enduring myth portrays the American people as the first modern nation to live in a liberal and selfgoverning polity. Paul Kahn believes in American exceptionalism, but he argues that liberal political theory, as conceived in the United States, does not have the necessary conceptual resources for understanding it. The main limit he sees in classic formulations of American liberalism is to be found in the paralyzing alternative between reason and interest. According to Kahn, contemporary theorists are not able to see the real meaning of American exceptionalism because they don’t have a proper theory of the will. Indeed, only a political psychology that takes into account the role of the will can explain the peculiarity of a nation’s constitutional history. In that respect, Kahn concentrates on the idea of sacrifice to explain the functioning of American constitutionalism and to show the main differences with the evolution of the European Union. However, by following this path, Kahn risks to propose a reductionist account of American constitutionalism.

Marco Goldoni, Una originale genealogia del liberalismo americano: le tesi di Paul W. Kahn in "TEORIA POLITICA" 2/2009, pp 193-199, DOI: 10.3280/TP2009-002011