Liberal democracy has been undermined: how can we shore it up?

Liberalism and its Discontents
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA
(PROFILE books, 192 PP, £16.99)
Tablet bookshop price £15.29 • Tel 020 7799 4064

Almost exactly 30 years ago, the thinking world was shocked by the appearance of Francis Fukuyama’s book The End of History and the Last Man. Only those intellectuals whose spirit of adventure extends to reading what was actually written between the covers have ever discovered that Fukuyama’s claim was neither so shocking nor so implausible as the title made it seem. Rather than arguing that the succession of historical events had come to an end, Fukuyama in fact argued merely that the historical evolution of forms of government had reached its highest possible level of development with the creation of modern liberal democracy.

Liberalism and its Discontents is the book’s natural successor. In this concise and lucid essay, Fukuyama examines the various kinds of intellectual and political tunnelling that have recently been undermining liberal democracy, and sketches a strategy that classical liberals might adopt in order to shore up the foundations of their favoured form of government. The recommended strategy is simple and compelling: “recovering a sense of moderation,” Fukuyama tells us, “is … the key to the revival – indeed, to the survival – of liberalism.”