Pierwszeństwo wolności przed równością jako zasada demokracji. Między Jean-Jacques Rousseau a Janem Pawłem II

In the article the author tries to answer the question: the protection of which of the two values - liberty and equality - should be a priority in a properly functioning democratic society. In subsequent parts of the article he looks at the four projects of public policy, which proposed in the last three centuries the prominent observers of social life. The first postulate comes from J.J. Rousseau - the fundamental condition of the good society is to ensure equality of all its members. Then the opposite concept was formulated by K.R Popper, that the basic principle is to protect the public life of freedom. In another passage the author cited the idea of A. de Tocqueville, that in a properly functioning democratic society, religion plays a central role and only its presence in the public space ensures effective protection of freedoms of citizens. The last part is dedicated to John Paul Il's observation that the Christian vision of the human interacts with the ethos of a democratic society, where fundamental value is freedom. Based on the analyzes author comes to the conclusion that the principle of democracy is to give the precedence of freedom over equality, and that the future of democracy, and the effectiveness of the protection of human freedom, is directly dependent on the active presence of Christians in the public life.