We argue in this paper that individual and collective self-determination have to be thought as co-original for the liberal script, as giving prime of place of one over the other is difficult to sustain. Treating individual as well as collective self-determination as co-constitutive core of the liberal script allows for a better understanding of inherent tensions as well as varieties of the liberal script which can be distinguished according to how they solve these tensions and their evolution in time and space. Such an understanding also clarifies the differences between internal and external contestations of the liberal script and, thus, of what constitutes illiberalism as well as non-liberalism. Finally, treating individual and collective self-determination as co-original for the liberal script allows for a better appreciation of how non-Western traditions have contributed and/or relate to the development of the liberal script.