Liberalism In Illiberal States

Liberalism in illiberal States acknowledges the dominance of economic liberalism, but argues that its implementation in specific countries is always unique and dependent upon powerful historical factors. This book focuses on France, Germany, and Italy - countries that many scholars do not view as "liberal" at all - and contends they have in fact developed distinct forms of national liberalism, of which their postwar models of capitalism were merely one manifestation.

" How a more positive form of identity politics can restore public trust in government Illiberalism, Thomas Main writes, is the basic repudiation of liberal democracy, the very foundation on which the United States rests. It says no to electoral democracy, human rights, the rule of law, toleration. It is a political ideology that finds expression in such older right-wing extremist groups as the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists and more recently among the Alt-Right and the Dark Enlightenment. There are also left-of-center illiberal movements, including various forms of communism, anarchism, and some antifascist movements. The Rise of Illiberalism explores the philosophical underpinnings of this toxic political ideology and documents how it has infiltrated the mainstream of political discourse in the United States. By the early twenty-first century, Main writes, liberal democracy’s failure to deal adequately with social problems created a space illiberal movements could exploit to promote their particular brands of identity politics as an alternative. A critical need thus is for what the author calls “positive identity politics,” or a widely shared sense of community that gives a feeling of equal importance to all sectors of society. Achieving this goal will, however, be an enormous challenge. In seeking actionable remedies for the broken political system of the United States, this book makes a major scholarly contribution to current debates about the future of liberal democracy. "

Understanding the dynamics of the illiberal practices of liberal states is increasingly important in Europe today. This book examines the changing relationship between immigration, citizenship and integration at the European and national arenas. It studies some of the main effects and questions the comprehensiveness of the exchange and coordination of public responses to the inclusion of third country nationals in Europe, as well as their compatibility with a common European immigration policy driven by a rights-based approach and the respect of the principles of fair and equal treatment of third country nationals. The volume reviews key national experiences of immigration and citizenship laws, the use of integration and the 'moving of ideas' between national arenas. The framing of integration in immigration and citizenship law and the ways in which policy convergence is being achieved through the EU framework on integration raises a number of conceptual dilemmas and a set of definitional premises in need of reflection and consideration.

This study considers examples of social policy in Britain and the US that conflict with liberal democratic ideals. It looks at the eugenic arguments in the 1920/30s, the use of work camps in the 1930s and work-for-welfare programmes since the 1980s.

Liberal States, Authoritarian Families sheds new light on longstanding questions in educational and political philosophy about the relationship between parents and children in a liberal state. Contemporary theorists argue that the family should be democratized to reflect the egalitarian ideals of the liberal state, but Koganzon argues that this desire for "congruence" between familial and state authority was originally illiberal in origin, advanced bytheorists of absolute sovereignty like Bodin and Hobbes. By contrast, early liberals like Locke and Rousseau rejected congruence, denying personal authority in government while reinforcing it within the family. Against the contemporary view that authority is the enemy of liberty, Koganzon shows how familial andpedagogical authority were originally conceived as necessary preservatives for liberty.

Leading authors in politics, law, sociology and theology discuss what the proper place of religion is in a liberal state.

Liberals blame the retreat of the liberal world order on populists at home and authoritarian leaders abroad. Only liberalism, so they claim, can defend the rules-based international system against demagogy, corruption and nationalism. This provocative book contends that the liberal world order is illiberal and undemocratic – intolerant about the cultural values of ordinary people in the West and elsewhere while concentrating power in the hands of unaccountable Western elites and Western-dominated institutions. Under the influence of contemporary liberalism, the international system is fuelling economic injustice, social fragmentation and a worldwide “culture war” between globalists and nativists. Liberals, far from defending rules, have broken international law and imposed their version of market fundamentalism and democracy promotion by military means. Liberal “civilisation” has fuelled resentment across the world by imposing a narrow worldview that pits cultures against one another. To avoid a descent into a violent culture clash, this book proposes radical ideas for international order that take the form of cultural commonwealths – social bonds and crossborder cultural ties on which international trust and cooperation depends. The book’s defence of an older order against both liberals and nationalists will speak to all readers trying to understand our age of anger. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and readers of liberalism, political theory and democracy, and more broadly to comparative politics and international relations.