Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-pt5lt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-10T08:15:02.429Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Legitimate Populism and Liberal Overreach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2022

Liav Orgad
Affiliation:
European University Institute, Florence
Ruud Koopmans
Affiliation:
Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Get access

Summary

Notwithstanding financial crises and pandemics, never have people living in Western societies enjoyed such an extraordinary combination of health, wealth, and freedom. But while liberal democracy has provided the framework for the largely peaceful management of power in Western societies, it has been supplemented in recent decades by what might be called a “liberal overreach.” The chapter identifies three policy areas of liberal overreach. First, the over-enthusiastic embrace of change and openness, from liberals of the left the embrace of mass immigration is emblematic and for liberals of the right it is the free market’s destruction of settled ways of life. Second, the promotion of cognitive-professional employment and academic training as the main route to a successful life. Third, the devaluation of family life and domesticity and the implicit rejection of any gender division of labor. This liberal overreach has provided the fuel for much of mainstream populism in the West. The chapter discusses the rise of populism as a reaction to liberal overreach and asks whether there can be a legitimate form of populism.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blair, T. (2005). Conference Speech (September 27, 2005), available at www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/sep/27/labourconference.speeches.Google Scholar
British Social Attitudes. (2018). Family Life, Attitudes to Non-Traditional Family Behaviours, available at https://bsa.natcen.ac.uk/latest-report/british-social-attitudes-37/family-life.aspx.Google Scholar
Caldwell, C. (2020). The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Goodhart, D. (2017). The Road to Somewhere: The New Tribes Shaping British Politics. London: Penguin Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Joppke, C. (2019). The Neonationalist Defense of Majority Culture: Themes, Actors, Policies. Justice 62: 22–27.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, E. (2019). Whiteshift: Immigration, Populism and the Future of White Majorities. Penguin.Google Scholar
Koopmans, R., & Orgad, L. (this volume). Majority–Minority Constellations: Towards a Group-Differentiated Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Orgad, L. (2016). The Cultural Defense of Nations: A Liberal Theory of Majority Rights. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Timothy, N. (2020). Remaking One Nation: The Future of Conservatism. Cambridge, UK: Polity.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×