Suchergebnisse

Francis Fukuyama, Liberalism and Its Discontents (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022)
Stein Ringen, How Democracies Live: Power, Statecraft, and Freedom in Modern Societies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022)
Reviewing two recent books, Francis Fukuyama's Liberalism and Its Discontents and Stein Ringen's How Democracies Live: Power, Statecraft, and Freedom in Modern Societies, this article explores their respective diagnoses of the current crisis of democracy and their proposed solutions. It shows that, while similar in method and intent, the two works diverge on crucial analytical and policy issues. By putting them in conversation, and bringing out these telling differences, the article seeks to clarify the urgent questions that face Western democracies today and the challenges of addressing them.

The prominence of colonization in Tocqueville's life and works has been widely noted, yet scholars disagree about its importance. The perceived tension between Tocqueville's analysis of democracy and his advocacy of colonization continues to be the subject of heated scholarly debate. Revisiting Tocqueville's analytical and practical engagement with colonization, this essay reexamines its relationship to Tocqueville's account of democracy. It argues that, while lending political support to the French empire, Tocqueville was a clairvoyant critic of colonial rule; and that his involvement with colonization could only be properly understood in light of the historical and civilizational vista that informs his oeuvre as a whole. Proposing that Tocqueville viewed European expansionism as an instrument of the global movement toward democratic equality, the essay concludes with an assessment of the significance of Tocqueville's colonial writings for his "new political science," and their relevance today.

AbstractThis article suggests that to judge the state of democracy today we need to clarify what we mean by democracy. Not simply given, democracy's institutional and moral meanings have been historically, and continue to be at present, the subject of intense disagreement. Drawing on one of the most influential accounts of modern democracy – Tocqueville's – it argues that far from rolling back, democracy defined by the passion for equality is, so to say, rolling forward; and that the various crises we are observing today issue less from the retreat than from a deepening of inherently democratic tendencies. These same trends may help explain the rise of neo‐liberalism in recent decades. Mitigating these deep‐seated tendencies would require a comprehensive set of remedies. Among them is the need to rethink not only the nature of equality but also, perhaps above all, the meaning of freedom.

"Alexis de Tocqueville is widely cited as an authority on civil society, religion, and American political culture, yet his thoughts on democratization outside the West and the challenges of a globalizing age are less known and often misunderstood. This collection of essays by a distinguished group of international scholars explores Tocqueville's vision of democracy in Asia and the Middle East; the relationship between globalization and democracy; colonialism, Islam, and Hinduism; and the ethics of international relations. Rather than simply documenting Tocqueville's own thoughts, the volume applies the Frenchman's insights to enduring dilemmas of democratization and cross-cultural exchanges in the twenty-first century. This is one of the few books to shift the focus of Tocqueville studies away from America and Western Europe, expanding the frontiers of democracy and highlighting the international dimensions of Tocqueville's political thought."--Page [i]

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Liberalism today has perhaps more supporters and adversaries than any other political movement. This volume traces liberalism's global ascent through essays about some of the thinkers and actors who participated in its rise and spread. The essays included here present for the first time in one place the geographic and ideological diversity of liberal thought and practice as it developed since the eighteenth century. By exploring thinkers as diverse as Montesquieu, Abraham Lincoln, Jacob Burckhardt, Khayr al-Din, Hu Shih, John Rawls, and Czeslaw Milosz, this volume contributes toward a better understanding of liberalisms past and present. Each chapter opens with a critical passage from the author under consideration and explores the author's significance for liberalism. By facilitating a direct encounter with influential authors and texts, the volume serves as an introduction both to the multiple dimensions of liberalism and to reading texts in political thought. By engaging with particular liberal moments, the essays allow readers to create and explore conversations among liberalisms across time and space. It thus encourages a broader and more nuanced understanding of the nature and history of liberalism. Stimulating, accessible and interdisciplinary, Liberal Moments will appeal to students and scholars in the history of political thought, intellectual history and beyond.