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Liberalism and Its Discontents by Francis Fukuyama review – a defence of liberalism… from a former neocon
In this slim, elegant book, the author of The End of History outlines with crystalline precision why the liberal spirit, for all its qualities, cannot grow complacent
I read this book, which is a thoughtful critique but ultimately a stalwart defence of liberalism, as Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, and it felt urgent and timely. Vladimir Putin, as Francis Fukuyama reminds us, has declared liberal democracy “obsolete”. His is not an uncommon opinion, even in liberal democracies. Thirty years ago, following the inglorious collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, Fukuyama gained international recognition for his book entitled The End of History and the Last Man. It argued that liberal democracy was essentially “the end point of mankind’s ideological evolution”.
As events such as 9/11, the Afghan and Iraq wars and the 2008 financial crisis took their toll on liberalism’s self-confidence, Fukuyama’s work was denounced as the height of Hegelian hubris. He was seen as a naive believer in the inevitability of a western-defined idea of progress, and as someone who was blind to liberal democracy’s failings.
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