Program:
Šárka Shoup, Board Member, European Liberal Forum
Jan Macháček, Chairman of the Board, Institute for Politics and Society
Classical liberalism and Libertarianism
Detmar Doering, Project Director Central Europe and the Baltic States, Friedrich Naumann Foundation
Edvard Outrata, Former Senator, Member of the Board, Institute for Politics and Society
Jiří Schwarz, President, Anglo-American University
Štěpán Hobza, Journalist, Lidové Noviny
Moderator: Jan Macháček, Chairman of the Board, Institute for Politics and Society
American vs. European liberalism – Confusion of Concepts?
Roman Joch, Director, Civic Institute
Jan Macháček, Chairman of the Board, Institute for Politics and Society
Gian Marco Bovenzi, Project Manager, Fondazione Luigi Einaudi
Moderator: Roman Máca, Analyst, Institute for Politics and Society
Liberalism and the Contemporary Challenges I. – Liberalism and fight against climate change, How liberal bias in media can undermine liberalism, Liberalism and fight against a pandemic
Veselin Vačkov, Managing Editor, Lidove noviny
Lukáš Kovanda, Chief Economist, Trinity Bank
Zina Zlatanova, Member, Liberal Institute for Political Analyses
Alexander Tomský, Political scientist and publicist
Filip Blaha, Chairman, Czech Students For Liberty
Moderator: Jan Macháček, Chairman of the Board, Institute for Politics and Society
Liberalism and Contemporary Challenges II. – Social networks and new censorship, Liberalism and the fight against terrorism. Liberalism and European integration, Liberalism and the four freedoms of the EU single market
Jacques Rupnik, Professor, Sciences Po
Stefano Adamo, Associate Professor of Italian Culture, University of Banja Luka in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Christopher Gleadle, Director, The Paddy Ashdown Forum
Miroslav Crha, Reconstruction of the State
Moderator: Roman Máca, Analyst, Institute for Politics and Society
Liberalism is not Dead
There have always been libertarians and anarcho-liberals who have similar attitudes as liberals, but they are more radical and perhaps even fundamentalists, according to some people. Their vision is also more utopian and less prone to compromise. Similar to liberals, there have been many types of libertarians, but in general they believe in private currency, private courts, are against modern central banks, et cetera. However, there is the word liberalism and a liberal, as it is understood in the United States. According to the American point of view, a liberal is someone who is more of a socialist, a progressive, and is most likely intolerant of different views, beliefs, and or ideologies, more specifically if they are opposed to their own views. Nowadays, many Europeans have begun to adopt this American terminology.
Today, infringements on human freedoms have increasingly occurred. These are infringements which liberalism is antithetical to and therefore liberals should oppose. Some of these infringements include increased travel-related controls and restrictions due to the potential threat of terrorist attacks, increased restrictions/limitations of freedoms within a pandemic situation, and, of course, increased restrictions/limitations on the Internet. We are currently witnessing an entirely new level of censorship and restrictions on freedom of expression on the Internet. One of the final infringements, that also directly ties into Internet censorship, is the demand to not to resist approved scientific opinions, with which modern governments desire to manage modern societies. These scientific opinions relate to climate change, the pandemic, etc.
With this pretext in mind, the pivotal questions in this scenario are: Why there are so few liberals in Europe? Why are they always weaker against conservatives, socialists and greens? Can we consider a conservative a natural ally of a liberal? Viktor Orbán, for example, recently proclaimed that the liberals are the conservatives arch-foes. Did he mean progressives as opposed to liberals? Did he say it purposely? How does the concept of liberal democracy relate to liberalism? How can we describe the relationship between liberalism and constitutionalism, or between liberalism and federalism?
Please note: You can either participate physically or virtually. Registration for this event must be confirmed by the organizers!
