Adrian Pabst Ordre des livres

Hyper-capitalism and extreme identity politics are driving us to distraction. Both destroy the basis of a common life shared across ages and classes. The COVID-19 crisis could accelerate these tendencies further, or it could herald something more hopeful: a post-liberal moment. Adrian Pabst argues that now is the time for an alternative – postliberalism – that is centred around trust, dignity, and human relationships. Instead of reverting to the mutual suspicion and destabilising inhumanity of 'just-in-time' free-market globalisation, we could build a politics upon the sense of localism and community spirit, the valuing of family, place and belonging, which was a real theme of lockdown. We are not obliged to put up with the restoration of a broken status quo that erodes trust, undermines institutions and trashes our precious natural environment. We could build a pluralist democracy, decentralise the state, and promote mutualist markets embedded in the everyday economy. This bold book shows that only a politics which fuses economic justice with social solidarity and ecological balance can overcome our deep divisions and save us from authoritarian backlash.​

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.

The book offers a thorough critique of contemporary liberalism while presenting post-liberal alternatives across various domains, including politics, economics, culture, and international relations. The expert authors delve into the deficiencies of liberalism and propose a comprehensive exploration of post-liberal ideas, aiming to reshape the discourse around Western political thought.