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Regime Change

Patrick J. Deneen

Postliberal political theory

It is a defining statement of contemporary postliberalism, essential for routes mapping the right's turn against liberal individualism.

Synopsis

Deneen argues liberalism has failed and calls for a postliberal order in which a renewed elite governs toward the common good and ordinary people's interests.

Core passage idea

Paraphrase · Modern copyrighted work

A new ruling class should be formed that serves the many rather than itself, reorienting power toward tradition, family, and the common good.

It pushes postliberal critique from diagnosis to prescription, proposing an alternative to liberal proceduralism rather than just lamenting it.

To avoid a bubble

Pair with Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty.

Reading note

Read it as a polemic, weighing its critique of liberalism separately from the contested elite-led remedy it proposes.

Best paired with

Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty

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