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parley, and all this without taking democracy into account. 4 The absolutely typical chain of
thought is to be found in the absolutely typical representative of parliamentarism, in Guizot.
Starting from right (as the opposite to might), he lists the essential characteristics of a system
that guarantees the rule of law: (1) that "the powers" are always forced to discuss and thereby
to seek the truth together; (2) that the openness of the whole of political life places "the
powers" under the citizens' control; and (3) that press freedom prompts citizens to seek the
truth for themselves and to make it known to "the powers." 5 Parliament is accordingly the
place in which particles of reason that are strewn unequally among human beings gather
themselves and bring public power under their control. This appears a typical rationalist idea.
Nevertheless it would be incomplete and inexact to define modern parliament as an
institution that has come into existence out of the rationalist spirit. Its ultimate justification
and its obviousness to a whole epoch rests on the fact that this rationalism is not absolute and
direct, but relative in a specific sense. Against Guizot's maxim, Mohl objected: Where is
there any kind of certainty that the possessors of particles of reason are to be found precisely
in parliament? 6 The answer lies in the notion of free competition and a preestablished
harmony, which, certainly in the institution of parliament, as in politics itself, often appears
in a hardly recognizable disguise.
It is essential that liberalism be understood as a consistent, comprehensive metaphysical
system. Normally one only discusses the economic line of reasoning that social harmony and
the maximization of wealth follow from the free economic competition of individuals, from
freedom of contract, freedom of trade, free enterprise. But all this is only an application of a
general liberal principle. It is exactly the same: That the truth can be found through an
unrestrained clash of opinion and that competition will produce harmony. The intellectual
core of this thought resides finally in its specific relationship to truth, which becomes a mere
function of the eternal competition of opinions. In contrast to the truth, it means renouncing a
definite result. In
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