A Farewell to Liberalism

In A Farewell to Liberalism, Marlene Laruelle and Erica Marat argue that China and Russia owe much of their influence to a rising demand for illiberalism around the world. Many observers blame Beijing and Moscow for the global rise of illiberalism. Laruelle and Marat show that China and Russia are in fact meeting demand from local elites across the world for the tools of illiberal governance that would offer them freedom from Western normative pressure. Drawing on polling data and media analyses from across fifteen countries as well as case studies ranging from Brazil to Serbia, the authors show that China and Russia court partners on different terms. Whereas Beijing offers services that work around the West, Moscow mostly offers those that work against it. Local elites draw on both, mixing liberal and illiberal practices and playing great powers off one another to maximize leverage. As the United States takes its own illiberal turn, A Farewell to Liberalism shows how leaders worldwide are remaking the global order to serve their own interests at home.