Does Liberalism Eat Itself?

·1 hr 4 min·5 clips

Adam Smith's 1776 insight turned self-interest into a pro-social force that grows the economic pie for everyone.

This episode of The Political Orphanage features host Andrew Heaton and returning guest Cass Sunstein, a prominent legal scholar and former regulatory official, to defend liberalism against modern critiques. Heaton frames the discussion by questioning whether liberalism, the Enlightenment-born system of individual rights, free markets, and democracy, is a triumphant endpoint or a fragile historical accident. The episode traces liberalism's rise from its challenge to feudal superstition and divine-right monarchy, highlighting Adam Smith's revolutionary idea that individual self-interest in open markets creates societal wealth. It covers the post-World War I optimism, citing Norman Angell's 1909 book *The Great Illusion* which argued interconnected markets made war economically irrational. Heaton details how 20th-century liberalism then faced existential challenges from fascism, which rejected its individualism, and communism, which saw it as a smokescreen for plutocracy. The narrative notes liberalism's apparent victory after the Cold War, symbolized by a 1990s Pizza Hut ad featuring Mikhail Gorbachev and Francis Fukuyama's "end of history" thesis. Sunstein explains he wrote his book because liberalism now faces contempt from the left for inequality and from the right for eroding traditional values. A key critique from the right, echoing Tocqueville, is that liberalism's emphasis on individualism cannibalizes the communal norms and traditions it depends upon. Sunstein clarifies that liberalism is a broad family including figures like FDR and Hayek, united by a commitment to rule of law, free speech, and markets. He distinguishes free markets, which require a legal framework to enforce property and contracts, from the incoherent concept of "laissez-faire" anarchism. Sunstein argues the classic "negative" versus "positive" rights dichotomy is false, as property rights inherently require positive government action and resources for enforcement. A surprising insight is that Sunstein believes critic Jonah Goldberg's view of liberalism as a delicate aberration is closer to correct than Fukuyama's vision of its inevitability. The conversation reveals that a Chinese shoemaker's joy in a pilot program allowing him to work for himself fundamentally stemmed from a liberal sense of economic freedom. Sunstein contends that both "woke" practices and some anti-woke attacks can be illiberal when they violate free speech principles. The episode underscores that creating a functioning free market system is not a simple flip of a switch but requires extensive legal architecture, a lesson from post-communist Eastern Europe. Heaton and Sunstein engage in a nuanced debate, treating liberalism as a "fighting faith" with bite against authoritarian practices, not a watered-down consensus. The tone is conversational and educational, blending historical narrative with philosophical debate between two intellectually aligned but probing hosts. This episode is ideal for listeners interested in political philosophy, the history of ideas, or concerned about current threats to democratic norms. Those seeking a highly partisan or single-issue discussion might find its broad, principled exploration less engaging.

As heard by us

A compact argument for liberalism, and the fear that it may eat its own foundations.

The Political Orphanage treats liberalism as an open question rather than a fixed label, tracing it back to the Enlightenment and the feudal order it pushed against.

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Why you'd press play

Hear a defense of liberalism that also wonders whether it can survive its own habits.

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