After Liberal Utopia: Judith Shklar on Injustice and Political Faith

• In Event: In Search of Judith Shklar’s Liberalism

Abstract

Judith Shklar’s “liberalism of fear” has captivated her interpreters since its original publication nearly 60 years ago. As Forrester (2011) has argued, this focus has wrongly cast Shklar as a Cold War liberal solely focused on a negative conception of justice. While some recent scholarship has tried to broaden our view of Shklar’s thought by returning to her earlier work (e.g., Gatta 2018; Misra 2016; Moyn 2019, 2023), the deep connection between her articulation and defense of political hope (albeit one firmly grounded in skepticism about the motives of others and of lofty reforms) and the insistence on political theory’s proper focus on social injustice throughout her career has been overlooked. I seek here to build on Forrester and others who see the productive tension in Shklar’s liberalism by demonstrating how a liberal political faith like the one Shklar develops in her earlier writings is not only necessary to address injustice but also should be central to any liberal theory. Shklar’s theory of political hope can help address the twin challenges liberalism faces in the rise of authoritarianism and its continued blindness to social injustices.

Author

• Michelle Schwarze, University of Wisconsin, Madison