Post-Liberalism: The Death of a Dream - Hardcover

Fein, Melvyn L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1412846080 ISBN 13: 9781412846080

Publisher: Routledge, 2012

Synopsis

Liberalism is dying—despite its superficial appearance of vigor. Most of its adherents still believe it is the wave of the future, but they are clinging to a sinking dream. So says Melvyn L. Fein, who argues that liberalism has made countless promises, almost none of which have come true. Under its auspices, poverty was not eliminated, crime did not diminish, the family was not strengthened, education was not improved, nor was universal peace established. These failures were not accidental; they flow directly from liberal contradictions. In Post-Liberalism, Fein demonstrates why this is the case.

Fein contends that an "inverse force rule" dictates that small communities are united by strong forces, such as personal relationships and face-to-face hierarchies, while large-scale societies are integrated by weak forces, such as technology and social roles. As we become a more complex techno-commercial society, the weak forces become more dominant. This necessitates greater decentralization, in direct opposition to the centralization that liberals celebrate. Paradoxically, this suggests that liberalism, as an ideology, is regressive rather than progressive. If so, it must fail.

Liberals assume that some day, under their tutelage, these trends will be reversed, but this contradicts human nature and history’s lessons. According to Fein, we as a species are incapable of eliminating hierarchy or of loving all other humans with equal intensity. Neither, as per Emile Durkheim, are we able to live in harmony without appropriate forms of social cohesion.

About this title

About the Author:

Melvyn L. Fein is professor of sociology at Kennesaw State University in Georgia and is the editor of the Journal of Public and Professional Sociology. 

Review:

“Perhaps individuals are beginning to realize that the time has arrived when we must have a serious dialogue about where we are heading as a nation. If one has not reached that conclusion, then he or she needs to read Melvyn Fein’s Post-Liberalism: The Death of a Dream. Among the multiple issues insightfully presented, Fein correctly questions the extent of the effort being made to protect the future viability of retirement funds of ordinary workers. Written in a mesmerizing and thought-provoking manner, Post-Liberalism will cause the reader to re-examine and re-evaluate his or her core belief structure.”

—William H. Wallace, Jr., former associate vice chancellor, University System of Georgia

 “Melvyn Fein is one of the great thinkers in American politics and society today. In Post-Liberalism, Dr. Fein dissects the major myths and fallacies of liberal political thought and instead looks to genuine solutions to our policy and political challenges.”

—Kerwin Swint, author of The King Whisperers: Power Behind the Throne from Rasputin to Rove

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1412846080
• ISBN 13: 9781412846080
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 372