A quadratura do círculo

A ótima resenha de Schlomo Avineri sobre os livros de Jan-Werner Müller e Eric Hobsbawn culmina nesta reflexão sobre os efeitos da atual crise financeira para a democracia liberal: 

The recent global financial crisis has once again shaken people's faith in the ability of capitalism to provide a sustainable flow of broad-based economic benefits to the public at large. It serves as a reminder of the fragility of the post-World War II order Müller describes. Recent demonstrations in Europe and the United States, meanwhile, attest to the failures of democratic governments to respond adequately to the crisis or satisfy public demands for action. Müller is aware that the hard-won postwar equilibrium should not be taken for granted, and he holds up the crisis of 1968 as an indication of its brittleness. 

Today's economic crisis is also a reminder of the contemporary relevance of the issues that Marx and his disciples, including Hobsbawm, have agonized over. Dialectically (if one is still allowed to use the term), Hobsbawm's suggestions for how elements of Marxist thinking can inform solutions to the crisis might still rescue the approach from total ­relegation to the dustbin of history. As the crisis has made clear, market fun­damentalism, radical privatization, and a universal fear of state power are overly simplistic answers to the question of how to sustain a modern, globalized economic order.

Concordo. Tenho para mim que a solução para este momento pós-neoliberal emergirá de um consenso que promova um reequilíbrio entre os valores de igualdade social, representação política e eficiência econômica. Acho que era esta era a quadratura do círculo que afligia Ralf Dahrendorf, ainda na década de 1990.