Limits to Tolerance: The Politicization of Liberal Values

Political Theory. 2026.

Van de Wall B.

The defense of gay rights and other liberal values by some right-wing populists is often perceived as an opportunistic strategy to justify anti-Muslim policies. But this explanation for co-optation of liberal values by parties that are considered to be in conflict with liberalism circumvents a proper analysis of the phenomenon. I will therefore investigate this element within populist politics as a problem of liberalism, rather than of populism. Doing so, this paper holds that co-optation of liberal values by right-wing populists follows from a distinctly liberal dialectic and, genealogically, represents a distinct strand of liberalism. Firstly, I will discuss the origins of populism in the Netherlands and present them as an exemplary case of what Adam Tebble calls “identity liberalism.” Secondly, I will analyze two foundational texts of the Dutch Party for Freedom to demonstrate its indebtedness to liberalism, and the correspondence of its argumentation to the philosophical problem known as the Böckenförde dilemma. Finally, I will show how identity liberalism is a conceivable, although not necessary, response to this dilemma. The politicization of liberal values by right-wing populists proves to be an attempt to solve the Böckenförde dilemma by turning these values into a marker of identity. This results in a type of liberalism that turns the initially inclusive liberalism into a politically exclusive doctrine.

Keywords: migration, identity, populism, Liberalism, Böckenförde, homonationalism