Houghton Street
Tue 15 Sept · 10:30 · Free
Join us for this conversation with Nobel Prize-winner and LSE alumnus Daron Acemoglu who will talk about his new book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy? In his book, Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu argues that liberal democracy flourished when it pursued its core promises of shared prosperity, democratic governance, and the free pursuit of knowledge. But liberalism, a philosophy built to challenge power, never fully adjusted to becoming the establishment. Nor was it able to deal with the economic and social disruptions that digital technologies wrought. Worse, in the postindustrial economy, liberalism turned its back on its core promises. As a segment of highly educated elites became politically dominant and separated from the rest of society, they sowed the seeds of widespread inequality while intensifying efforts to reshape mass culture and values. Using the wide interdisciplinary lens that has won him global acclaim, Acemoglu documents the extraordinary, unparalleled progress that liberalism created, and recounts how liberal democratic institutions plunged themselves into crisis over the last several decades. Looking at rapid advances in technology, shifts in regulatory environments, global political history, and economics, Acemoglu lucidly lays out the successes and failures of our most important political system. And he envisions a new way forward, which he calls working-class liberalism: a philosophy that prioritizes shared prosperity, empowers communities, and accommodates a range of values and views.
Not the same tradition as the lineage above — a genuinely different thread to pull, if you want one.