If you'd like to keep up to date with our publications and events join our mailing list
Upcoming Events:
Defining Liberalism
Frank Vibert (carr, LSE)
Discussant: Paul Kelly (Department of Government, LSE)
Wednesday 3 December 2025, 1-2.30pm
CKK.1.10, LSE
In the world today, authoritarianism is on the rise. All approaches to democracy are under challenge. Liberalism in particular appears to have lost its voice and resonance. Some observers blame the neo-liberalism of the Cold War years for contributing to the rise of authoritarianism. The individualism of neo-liberalism is seen to have sparked a ‘them against us’ world. Its backing of a spontaneous order is seen to have neglected the role of design in the structuring of a democratic state. Its approach to income inequalities through a ‘trickle down’ process of wealth creation in a free market is seen to offer a totally inadequate approach to address the need for fairness in democratic societies and the role the state must play in removing the sources of grievance in societies. Thus, a key question to be addressed in this talk is whether or not the liberal tradition still offers an effective opposition to contemporary forms of authoritarianism or whether its time has passed.
Frank Vibert will present the argument of his forthcoming book on Liberalism. Paul Kelly is the author of the recently published Against Post-Liberalism (Polity).
The event is in person and online (link to be circulated to registrants before the event).
Please register here for the event:
Defining Liberalism – Fill out form