Claiming the social in freedom

This chapter addresses how the state can sustain individual freedom. Three totally different and even partially incompatible positions within the debate are presented and discussed. The chapter starts out from a discussion of Weber’s ‘negative’ conception of ‘political freedom’ in which the state with its bureaucratic apparatus is solely an obstacle for individual freedom. To apprehend how the state can enable freedom, which is the overall aim of the chapter, German ordoliberalism is then introduced. Here, a strong state provides the necessary regulatory framework for the market, entrepreneurs, economic man and ‘economic freedom’. Finally, Durkheim’s political sociology is invoked to present a genuine ‘social’ conception of freedom. This time, the state implements the ‘cult of the individual’, that is a kind of freedom in which socially responsible individuals mutually respect and uphold each other’s freedom and individuality. To elaborate on this last solidaric idea of freedom, the chapter also engages with Honneth’s idea of ‘social freedom’.