Contemporary Limits of Constitutional Patriotism

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“Constitutional patriotism” has become one of the common concepts of political philosophy. Emerging in the local context of post-war Germany’s division, it gained particular popularity at the end of the last century in connection with the further globalization and multiculturalization of the world community and the creation of the European Union. Constitutional patriotism is seen, above all, as a more abstract form of social integration, replacing the traditional collective identity of the national community with a liberal-democratic political culture. Thus, it was a response to the criticism of communitarianism towards liberalism regarding the underestimation of the problem of motivating the protection of liberal democratic institutions. The article substantiates the need for a differentiated approach to the analysis of constitutional patriotism. There are two interpretations of constitutional patriotism – cosmopolitarian and particularistic. The paradox of tolerance — the issue of maintaining a tolerant attitude towards groups intolerant of the liberal political culture of society – outlines the existential boundaries of universally interpreted constitutional patriotism. This paradox became relevant as a result of the European migration crisis, as well as hybrid wars, one of the tools of which was the use of democratic institutions to destroy the constitutional order. Modern political incarnations of the paradox of tolerance demonstrate that the autonomy of liberal-democratic political culture always has its limits in preserving the conditions necessary for the existence of political culture itself.