After Liberalism

In After Liberalism, the distinguished historian and political scientist Immanuel Wallerstein examines the process of disintegration of our modern world-system and speculates on the changes that may occur during the next few decades. He explores the historical choices before us and suggests paths for reconstructing our world-system on a more rational and socially equitable basis.

The intellectual left has been largely adrift since the fall of communism. Some illusions having collapsed with the Berlin Wall, many liberals have sought vainly for some substantial support for their instinctive beliefs. Wallerstein, a distinguished historian and sociologist who teaches in Paris and New York and a champion of the left in the Marxist tradition, seeks to provide some of that intellectual buttressing. He calls for the rejection by the left of liberalism, which he sees as a failed centrist tactic. Rational reform on the basis of liberal assumptions of continued economic growth is no longer sustainable, he argues. This collection of his articles between 1991 and 1995 details his ideas for a radically decentralized and democratized approach to replace liberalism.