Post-liberalism

Melvyn L. Fein contends that liberalism is in decline, even though it still looks energetic. Many of its supporters continue to see it as the future of politics, yet Fein argues they are holding on to an ideal that is already fading. He reviews the goals liberalism set for itself, including ending poverty, reducing crime, strengthening families, improving schools, and securing lasting peace, and finds that very few were met. In his view, these shortfalls are built into liberal thinking itself rather than being accidents of implementation.

At the center of the book is what Fein calls the "inverse force rule." He holds that small communities hold together through strong bonds such as close personal ties and face-to-face hierarchies, while large modern societies depend on weaker links such as technology and defined social roles. As economies and societies grow more complex and commercial, these weaker links take over. Fein concludes that this trend calls for more decentralization, which runs against the centralizing impulse that liberals tend to welcome. He therefore argues that liberalism, far from being forward-looking, works against social development and cannot last.

Fein also challenges the liberal belief that these trends can eventually be reversed through enlightened guidance. He argues that this belief runs against both human nature and the historical record, since people cannot abolish hierarchy or love all others with equal intensity. Drawing on Emile Durkheim, he stresses that humans cannot live together peacefully without suitable forms of social cohesion.