Globalization And Liberalism

The Globalization of Liberalism demonstrates that liberalism is more deeply embedded in the structure of modern international political and economic order than is usually realised, and that at present there is a contested process of the 'globalization of liberalism'. As well as exploring liberalism's usefulness for understanding how international relations work, the contributors offer critical perspectives on the liberal structure of modern international society and places international liberalism into a global context by examining responses to liberalism in China, India and the Middle East.

In this learned and wide-ranging book, Trevor Shelley engages the controversial topic of globalization through philosophical exegesis of great texts. Globalization and Liberalism illustrates and defends the idea that at the heart of the human world is the antinomy of the universal and the particular. Various thinkers have emphasized one aspect of this tension over the other. Some, such as Rousseau and Schmitt, have defended pure particularity. Others, such as Habermas, have uncritically welcomed the intimations of the world state. Against these twin extremes of radical nationalism and antipolitical universalism, this book seeks to recover a middle or moderate position—the liberal position. To find this via media, Shelley traces a tradition of French liberal political thinkers who take account of both sides of the antinomy: Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Manent. As Shelley argues, each of these thinkers defends the integrity of political bodies, denies that the universal perspective is the only legitimate perspective, and recognizes that, without differences and distinctions across the political landscape, self-government and freedom of action are impossible. As human beings, we can live free and fulfilling lives neither as isolated individuals nor as members of humanity. Rather, we require a properly constituted particular political community in which we can make manifest our universal humanity. In the liberalism of these three thinkers, we find the resources to think through what such a political community might look like. Globalism and Liberalism demonstrates the importance of these writers for addressing today’s challenges and will interest political theorists, historians of political thought, and specialists of French political thought.

As the world economy slides into the worst recession since the 1930s, there is fear that hard times will ignite a backlash against free trade policies and globalization more generally. This book explores the political and economic institutional foundations of the bargain of embedded liberalism and the ways domestic institutions shape how governments redistribute the risks and benefits of economic globalization. The author identifies the Anglo-American democracies, because of their majoritarian polities combined with decentralized, competitive economies, as uniquely vulnerable to the contemporary challenges of globalization and the most susceptible to a backlash against it.

As the world economy slides into the worst recession since the 1930s, there is fear that hard times will ignite a backlash against free trade policies and globalization more generally. This book explores the political and economic institutional foundations of the bargain of embedded liberalism and the ways domestic institutions shape how governments redistribute the risks and benefits of economic globalization. The author identifies the Anglo-American democracies, because of their majoritarian polities combined with decentralized, competitive economies, as uniquely vulnerable to the contemporary challenges of globalization and the most susceptible to a backlash against it.

With a highly accessible and lucid text this book reviews the political shift toward neo-liberal ideology and explores its tremendous impact on education. It maps out in careful detail the theoretical foundations of democratic citizenship by asking the question: What does it mean to learn and live in a democracy and what responsibilities, capacities and knowledge does a citizen need to fulfill these requirements?

"We live in anagewhere"progressive" intellectualspresuppose that true democracy demands the affirmation of "global values" and the drive toward a world government, a"universal and homogenous state." Intellectuals, journalists, and educators bemoan the effects of "globalization" even as they uncritically endorse cosmopolitanism and dismissnational attachments as parochial and outdated. They confuse thoughtful patriotism - and commitment to the self-governing nation - with the narrowest form of nationalism. In a wonderfullylucid and learned essay, Trevor Shelley recovers a humane liberal tradition, from Montesquieu to Manent, that takes the political seriously and does full justice to the legitimate claims of both universality and particularity. Whether discussing Tocqueville's critique of the pantheistic reveries of democratic man or Pierre Manent's erudite defense of the nation, the political form that provides the indispensable framework for democratic self-government, Shelley thoughtfully illumines the place and limits of globalization in a democratic age. --Daniel J. Mahoney, Augustine Chair in Distinguished Scholarship, Assumption College"--

This book offers a contemporary critique of liberal democracy, understood as a set of institutions and as a set of ideas. Roland Axtmann asks what democracy means today, as it faces the challenges of feminism, multiculturalism, globalization and European integration. Axtmann analyses in turn each of liberal democracy's component parts. Firstly he discusses the notions of sovereignty, constitutionalism and representation and analyses the liberal concept of citizenship. Secondly he surveys the conceptual history of civil society and presents republicanism and deliberative politics (after Habermas) as alternative conceptualizations of democracy. Thirdly he shows how feminism and multi-culturalism challenge liberal democracy with their demands for the granting of group rights. Finally he shows how global interdependence and supranational integration demand a reconsideration of democratic sovereignty. The idea of democratic rule by the sovereign people in the sovereign nation-state is being transformed to reflect new connections between citizens, governments, and supranational institutions.

"In this learned and wide-ranging book, Trevor Shelley engages the controversial topic of globalization through philosophical exegesis of great texts. This study illustrates and defends the idea that at the heart of the human world-in thinking, reflecting, and acting-is the antinomy of the universal and the particular. Various thinkers have emphasized one aspect of this tension over the other. Some thinkers such as Rousseau and Schmitt have defended pure particularity. Others such as Habermas have uncritically welcomed the intimations of the world state. Against these twin extremes of radical nationalism and antipolitical universalism, this book seeks to recover a middle or moderate position, that is, the liberal position. To that end, Shelley traces a tradition of French liberal political thinkers who attempt to take account of both sides of the antinomy: Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Manent. As Shelley argues, each of these thinkers in his own way defends the integrity of political bodies, denies that the universal perspective is the only legitimate one, and recognizes that, without differences and distinctions across the political landscape, self-government and freedom of action are impossible"--