Reviving Classical Liberalism Against Populism

by Nils Karlson

This open access book by Nils Karlson explores the strategies used by left- and right-wing populists to make populism intelligible, recognizable, and contestable. It presents a synthesized explanatory model for how populists promote autocratization through the deliberate polarization of society. It traces the ideational roots of the core populist ideas and shows that these ideas form a collectivistic identity politics. Karlson argues that to fight back requires the revival of liberalism itself by defending and developing the liberal institutions, the liberal spirit, liberal narratives, and liberal statecraft.  The book also presents and discusses an extensive list of counterstrategies against populism.  Written within the tradition of political theory and institutional economics, this book uses a wide variety of sources, including results and analyses from social psychology, ethics, law, and history.

Genres: Politics

148 pages, Hardcover

Published December 31, 2023

Reviews

[Einzige · Rating 4 out of 5]

As preface to my review, I am grateful to the author who has kindly made this open access and available at Springer Link.

The book has two components, firstly it defines the famously nebulous concept of populism secondly it provides a rationale for a classical liberal opposition to it and what classical liberals need to do to achieve this.

When it comes to understanding populism it does a fantastic job at showing the unifying traits of populism and how they can be used effectively by both people on the left and right wings of politics and how their policies inevitably lead to worse economic outcomes and increased but unstable autocratisation.

The second component is where the work struggles, and while it is laudable that the author identifies some of the thornier challenges faced by classical liberalism (notably that while it provides the ideal conditions for people to pursue their lives with meaning it struggles to provide any meaning itself and is hence vulnerable to ideologies that do) the ability for his solutions to be achieved is questionable if not Utopian. However I could easily see these solutions explored vigorously in a separate book.

[Per Kraulis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a well-written book, yet terrible. It describes the arguments for liberalism well. But it is terrible because it does not manage to rise over the level of a propaganda piece. The analysis of populism makes interesting points, but it ultimately fails to explain why liberalism has waned and populists have become so successful in the last 20 or so years. The recipe for countering populism is basically just "more neoliberalism".

One reason for this failure is that the author seems incapable of entertaining the thought that liberal ideas, policies and government may have internal contradictions and unintended consequences that undermine it. The call for a revival of "classical liberalism" is entirely misguided. Reviving a corpse just produces a zombie. Any attempt at revivification of an ideology will inevitably transform it. Indeed, the "decent classical liberalism" Karlson advocates bears an uncanny similarity to social liberalism.

This book is a failure, and the fact that so many liberals seem to like it is a sign that liberals do not understand how bad the situation is. Being a liberal myself, I despair at our inability to face up to reality and reconsider our thinking in depth.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Important and well done series of essays laying out what populism is and how it works and how classical liberalism is the better alternative and how it can be revived to provide for human flourishing. Outlines key arguments and notes important writers, thinkers and scholars and then make an argument of its own based on this history and information. Hard to think of an issue more relevant to our times.