Beyond the market and the minimal state: The richness of liberal political philosophy

Abstract

This article analyzes the discourse of the Ibero-American right and its appropriation of a reductionist version of liberalism. Its general objective is to demonstrate how this political current simplifies liberalism by restricting it to the defense of the free market and the reduction of the state, omitting its broader philosophical and political dimensions. The argumentative premises are based on a review of classical and contemporary liberal thought. It contrasts the vision of Juan Bautista Alberdi, who emphasized the limitation of state power, with other approaches such as that of Benjamin Constant, who distinguished between political and individual freedom; Jürgen Habermas, who emphasizes the role of public opinion and deliberation. and John Rawls, who incorporated principles such as distributive justice. It also analyzes the tradition of classical political economy and the neoclassical school, showing how the concept of the “invisible hand” has been used to justify absolute non-intervention by the state. The article concludes that liberalism is a complex current of thought that includes the defense of individual rights, social justice and a balance between State and market. The ideological appropriation of its discourse by the Latin American right wing not only distorts its original meaning, but also impoverishes the political debate by reducing it to a binary opposition between interventionism and laissez-faire.