“If the world were wholly just”: Nozick and the limits of libertarian utopia [«Si el mundo fuera completamente justo»: Nozick y los límites de la utopía liberal].

Abstract

While liberalism is usually conceived as a political theory contrary to Utopia, in one of its versions developed during the twentieth century, we can see the rise of a liberal Utopia, whether it be the formulation of normative theories which express the idea of non-coercion or the outlining and defense of a political community where universal tolerance reigns supreme. This article will focus on the version of this double Utopia developed by Robert Nozick in his arguments favoring a minimal State. We sustain that —regarding the first aspect— his entitlement theory springs from idealizations which, when applied, lead to certain juridical aporias that reclaim a minimal State. And, regarding the second aspect, we sustain that the meta-Utopia described by Nozick would not lead to the blossoming of different micro-Utopias but rather to an ever-more entrenched hegemony of capitalist communities, a hegemony which would result in the colonization or dissolution of non-capitalist communities and, ultimately, in the minimal State in crisis.