Liberalism
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principal target of criticism is nevertheless liberalism’s defining value, individualism. Communitarians condemn liberalism for advancing a model of the self as asocial, atomized and ‘unencumbered’, which is not only grossly unrealistic but also fails to provide a moral basis for social order. Socialists claim that the emphasis within liberal individualism on self-interest and self-reliance weakens social responsibility and helps to perpetuate the myth that the distribution of wealth reflects the distribution of individual merit. Conservatives, especially traditional conservatives, argue that unrestrained individualism is destructive of the social fabric and produces a society of vulnerable and isolated individuals. Feminists, for their part, claim that individualism is invariably constructed on the basis of male norms which uphold gender inequality. Finally, there are reasons for thinking that the future may belong not to liberalism but to illiberalism , especially as represented by authoritarianism. In a trend that dates back to the mid-1990s, authoritarian ideas and practices have advanced across much of the world. The most important and novel development underpinning this advance has been the ability of authoritarian regimes to compete with the economic performance of liberal democracies. Indeed, if current growth rates persist, by 2023 the share of global income held by countries that possess authoritarian political systems, such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia, will surpass the share held byWestern liberal democracies. Rising prosperity, in turn, has had profound implications for the political role of the middle class. Instead of acting as the traditional bastion of democracy, the educated middle class, benefiting from
improved living standards, has often provided authoritarian regimes with crucial support. Thus, whereas the world’s last two major encounters with illiberalism (associated, respectively, with fascism and communism) each ended with a resurgence of liberalism, the same may not happen in the case of ‘new’ authoritarianism.
Illiberalism: Opposition to or absence of liberalism; liberal democracies substitute authoritarian rule for constitutional rule.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
y y In what sense is liberalism linked to the Enlightenment project? y y Why do liberals reject unlimited freedom? y y How convincing is the liberal notion that human beings are reason-guided creatures? y y Which forms of equality do liberals support, and which do they reject? y y Why do liberals believe that power tends to corrupt, and how do they think it can be ‘tamed’? y y How do classical liberals defend unregulated capitalism?
y y How far are modern liberals willing to go in endorsing social and economic intervention? y y Do modern liberals have a coherent view of the state? y y To what extent is liberal constitutionalism compatible with democracy? y y Is liberal democracy the final solution to the problem of political organization? y y Is the decline of liberalism set to be an ongoing process? y y Are liberal principles universally valid?
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