Book Launch – Gábor Scheiring: The Retreat of Liberal Democracy

SASE Blog Editor Gábor Scheiring will launch his new book, The Retreat of Liberal Democracy, on 15 April at 5pm GMT and registrations are now open at the Independent Social Research Foundation website.

The Book

Why is the world facing a wave of democratic backsliding? Is contemporary capitalism causing this spread of authoritarian regimes? How does neoliberalism weaken democracy in the name of expanding it?

Not long ago, most Western politicians and scholars assumed such questions would be unnecessary, as capitalist institutions and democracy would reinforce each other in creating a long wave of post-Cold War global development. They treated countries where this was not happening, like Hungary after 2010, as anomalies. In his important new book, recent ISRF Fellow Dr Gábor Scheiring shows why this view is wrong. A former member of Hungary’s parliament as well as a political economist, he shows that Hungary is not an anomaly but an exemplary case of development under current international rules. Viktor Orbán’s illiberalism is a strategic way to build a new accumulative state, furthering domestic capital accumulation without challenging the dominance of international capital. Dr. Scheiring’s analysis offers both a unique perspective on Hungary and a clear understanding of the politics of global capitalism in the 2020s.

The Event

Dr Scheiring will offer an overview of his book. Two experts on the topic will respond: Professor Chris Hann (Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology), a scholar of economic anthropology, religion, and long-term history, and Editor of the European Journal of Sociology, and Dr Sherrill Stroschein (UCL), Reader in Politics and author of Ethnic Struggle, Coexistence, and Democratization in Eastern Europe. Your questions and a discussion will follow, moderated by Professor Christopher Newfield, ISRF Director of Research. All are welcome, both to attend and anticipate.