Has liberalism failed because it has succeeded? Of the three dominant ideologies of the
twentieth century-fascism communism and liberalism-only the last remains. This has created a
peculiar situation in which liberalism's proponents tend to forget that it is an ideology and
not the natural end-state of human political evolution. As Patrick Deneen argues in this
provocative book liberalism is built on a foundation of contradictions: it trumpets equal
rights while fostering incomparable material inequality its legitimacy rests on consent yet
it discourages civic commitments in favor of privatism and in its pursuit of individual
autonomy it has given rise to the most far-reaching comprehensive state system in human
history. Here Deneen offers an astringent warning that the centripetal forces now at work on
our political culture are not superficial flaws but inherent features of a system whose success
is generating its own failure.
