Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and Its Discontents (2022) defends classical/humane liberalism—ideas that emerged in the second half of the seventeenth century—arguing for limitations on government, constitutions, the rule of law, and the protection of individual rights. Classical liberalism theory tends to be individualistic, egalitarian, universalist, and meliorist, with a capacity for self-correction. His goal is to describe contemporary American society’s retreat from the better aspects of classical liberalism.
This full text of this article will be available on this page nine months after its initial print publication. To read it now, please buy this issue in print or eBook format from our store, or in the newly redesigned Independent Review app on iOS or Android, or on Magzter which offers digital access on smartphones, tablets, and web browsers.
Maryann O. Keating is a fellow at the Indiana Policy Review Foundation and has taught economics at various colleges in the U.S. and abroad.
