Post-liberalism is a worldview that adopts, reforms, and critiques many of the central tenets of both the social and economic liberalisms of the past century. Its concern, according to commentators like David Goodhart – who addressed an audience at Theos last week – is that that these twin liberalisms have combined over a generation to notable ill effect.
Post-liberalism argues that neither of the previous liberalisms have given proper regard to heritage, tradition, cultural roots and the lived experience of ordinary people. While policies like the free movement of labour across EU member states may have some economic benefits, they create social pressures that the ‘liberal elite’ have greatly underestimated. The post-liberal argument is that there is therefore a sense of disorientation in national identity – that with the loss of a distinctive British narrative, the very concept of Britishness has come to feel like a brittle thing. According to such a diagnosis, there is an appetite for a politics which can take account of these things. Populist parties like UKIP have given a particular voice to concerns which previously lay dormant, or ignored.
Of particular interest is how Christians have responded to the post-liberal line of thinking. While not always acknowledged by post-liberal commentators (Goodhart didn’t really ‘do’ God at our event), many Christians have been quick to endorse a renewed focus on tradition, relationships, community and the family. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that social liberalism is wont to ignore the significance of religious identity, if not to see it as downright objectionable. In a post-liberal politic, many religious people see a hope for a civic identity which will give the space for concerns about “faith, flag and family” to re-emerge.
There is little doubt that Christianity can play a vital role in shaping a coherent vision for a post-liberal society. But as fashionable and attractive as post-liberalism is, even sympathetic Christians should not hitch their wagons to its horses without reservation. Rather, Christian thought holds a unique potential to protect a post-liberal politics from sliding into a British exceptionalism, for Christianity prevents such a politics from reflecting a ‘we take care of our own’ sentiment straight back at the British public.
In its purest form, post-liberalism is a set of practical concerns about policy failures. Take immigration, for example. Post-liberalism raises genuine concerns that an influx of disparate cultures can lead to the break-up of communities – whether that is through a loss of shared identity, or the more practical impacts of scarce resources (schools, jobs, housing etc). The post-liberal policy objective is to control migration in order to reduce its impact on existing communities (whether that’s feasible, possible or ultimately desirable is a different matter). Post-liberalism thus advocates prioritising those of a certain national identity, but only in so far as that prioritising furthers the common good of a nation. To such an extent as it remains practically concerned with the common good, post-liberalism remains a child of liberalism, rather than an enemy.
The risk, however, is the ease with which one slips from the practical into the ideological: from a position of placing a practical priority on the sustained good life of existing communities, to a position of imagining them to hold some greater intrinsic value, in a feedback loop of moral myopia which is not only deeply unattractive, but which can also ultimately harm us. Ebola has been around for decades, but it is only since an outbreak threatened to spread to western nations that there has been any real political will to do anything about it. As Kofi Annan put it, “if the crisis had hit some other region, it probably would have been handled very differently” (see also Dr. John Stutter’s CNN editorial here). Post-liberalism may be a necessary corrective to liberalism’s aberrations, but it doesn’t provide sufficient moral ground for politics as a whole. It lacks a moral frame.
If Christians can bring anything to the post-liberal table, it is to help protect against a slip from the practical politics, aimed at chastening liberalism, to a populist and morally rudderless politics which simply takes what people think at face value. The Christian vision is of an ultimate polity that transcends familial, political, national and social boundaries. In Christianity, the questions “Who is my neighbour? Who are my family?” are met with the most radical and far-reaching inclusiveness. The Christian city is for every tribe, every culture, and every possible identity. It is the city of Paul, for whom the central message of faith is that Good News has come to everyone – rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and master. Whatever our ties and responsibilities to a local community, Christianity advocates the equal worth of all humankind. Such a reminder is essential if post-liberal politics is to retain one of the very best facets of the liberal tradition – namely the striving towards ethical action in global affairs.
None of this is to say whether post-liberalism is an appropriate diagnosis of the problems faced by modern societies. That’s not the point. What it is to say, is that post-liberalism should welcome and invite a specifically Christian contribution, for that contribution has the potential to protect it from its own worst excesses - excesses which would refuse to look beyond the local and national in judgements of value. For a truly post-liberal politics, as for the Christian church, the death of a nurse in Freetown should be every bit as tragic as that of a nurse from England.
Tom Andrew is a Research Intern at Theos
Image by Wikimedia available in the public domain
