An Inchoate End to the Age of Imitation
In an era of liberal retreat, this book convincingly tells how liberalism has recoiled over three decades from its historical triumph in the Cold War. Stephen Holmes of New York University and Ivan Krastev at the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria, mark the Soviet bloc ‘s collapse as the onset of a 30-year “Age of Imitation,” in which the world was divided anew between relatively stable and prosperous liberal democracies and countries including ex-communist ones that hoped to emulate them.
The authors contend that between 2008 and 2016, however, the Age of Imitation had come to an end. They trace the origins of today’s worldwide antiliberal revolt in three parallel, interconnected and resentment-fueled reactions to Western liberalism: the intolerant Central European populism; Russia’s grievance against the imperative Westernization; and Donald Trump’s resentment against a world full of countries that seek to emulate America, trying to replace the model they imitate. The authors also designate the rise of China as an additionally decisive factor. They argue that China too imitated the West, but by borrowing technical means without changing its identity, while Central European ex-communist countries imitated moral ends of the West, fundamentally transforming their identities. Since Beijing yearns to be admired and respected, but not to be copied, they further argue that the end of the Age of Imitation means the return to a pluralistic and competitive world, where no centers of military and economic power will strive to spread their own system of values across the globe.
For a posthegemonic world, the authors project three scenarios.