What postliberalism really is

The election of Donald Trump and the advance of populism across Europe confirm that we have already entered a postliberal era. Our age marks the end of liberal hegemony that first emerged in the 1960s and 1970s before triumphing after the end of the cold war – the fusion of left-wing social-cultural liberalism with right-wing economic liberalism.

Contemporary liberal thought – with its focus on the individual, negative liberty, subjective rights and utility-maximisation – fails to understand the world we live in or the nature of reality. Part of the reason is that much of 20th-century liberalism denies any notion of substantive, transcendent goods in favour of individual rights. Contemporary liberalism has tended to reduce questions of justice either to matters of legalism or utilitarian calculations. This has had the effect of de-politicising fundamental issues, such as the impact of globalisation and mass immigration on society, while handing ultimate decisions either to unelected bureaucracies, parastatal bodies or the courts.