Comment on the Decline of Liberalism. [150 words]
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Route 1 Liberalism as dominant ideology of the modern West → now faces accumulated crisis of its own making
Route 2 Liberalism’s promise — individual rights, rule of law, democratic governance → neoliberal variant betrayed that promise
Neoliberal inequality → Stiglitz + Piketty → economic discontent → populist backlash → Mounk: liberal democracy in retreat → Crouch: post-democracy gap → cultural backlash against multiculturalism + progressive liberalism → external pressures: authoritarian states, geopolitical fragmentation, self-subversion
Decline is not extinction: liberal institutions, rights framework, and constitutional order retain legitimacy and capacity for renewal
Route 1 Liberalism needs welfare correction and institutional renewal to recover social legitimacy
Route 2 The crisis is real, but liberalism’s alternatives have not produced a coherent replacement — the project remains unfinished
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
