This is the latest book from Francis Fukuyama. He outlines three justifications for liberalism :
“The first is a pragmatic rationale: liberalism is a way of regulating violence and allowing diverse populations to live peacefully with one another. The second is moral: liberalism protects basic human dignity, and in particular human autonomy-the ability of each individual to make choices. The final justification is economic: liberalism promotes economic growth and all the good things that come from growth, by protecting property rights and the freedom to transact.”
According to him, one popular discontent generated by liberal societies is their frequent inability to present a positive vision of national identity to their citizens.
“Liberal theory has great difficulties drawing clear boundaries around its own community, and explaining what is owed to people inside and outside that boundary. This is because the theory is built on top of a claim of universalism. As asserted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, "All human beings are both free and equal in dignity and rights"; further, "Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status." Liberals are theoretically concerned with violations of human rights no matter where in the world they occur. Many liberals dislike the particularistic attachments of nationalists, and believe that they are citizens of the world."
He also talks about the Overton window. The Overton window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse.
Finally he said, moderation is the principle needs to be considered if the liberals still wanted to be relevant.
“Moderation is not a bad political principle in general, and especially for a liberal order that was meant to calm political passions from the start. If the economic freedom to buy, sell, and invest is a good thing, that does not mean that removing all constraints from economic activity will be even better. If personal autonomy is the source of an individual's fulfillment, that does not mean that unlimited freedom and the constant disrupting of constraints will make a person more fulfilled. Sometimes fulfillment comes from the acceptance of limits. Recovering a sense of moderation, both individual and communal, is therefore the key to the revival indeed, to the survival of - liberalism itself.”
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