THE DISENCHANTMENT OF RICH AND POOR

The retreat of liberal democracy in the 21st century has been impossible to ignore. From Wisconsin to Warsaw, Budapest to Bengaluru, people are turning against pluralism and liberal institutions and professing hyper-nationalism and majoritarianism. Critics of inequality argue that this is a predictable response to the failures of capitalism and liberalism, but Pranab Bardhan, a development economist, sees things differently. The problem is not inequality but insecurity — financial and cultural — he argues. In the US, older, less-educated, rural citizens have withdrawn from democracy. But in India, the right-wing enjoys the support of parts of the educated, aspirational urban youth. And in Europe, anti-democratic populists firmly back the welfare state (but for non-immigrants). What is consistent is these people’s fear of losing what they have. That could be money but is often cultural pride and the comfort of tradition.

A World of Insecurity argues for context-sensitive responses. Bardhan urges liberals to respect local attachments. By affirming civic forms of community pride, he says, we might hope to temper cultural anxieties before they become pathological.

Pranab Bardhan

225pp, ~499, HarperCollins