Liberalism and its angry critics

Author's name: Francis Fukuyama Publisher: Arab and International Relations Forum Year of publication: 2023 Literary classification: History Brief about the book: Fukuyama admits that the troubles of liberalism are not new, as liberal ideology has waned over the centuries, but it has always returned to the forefront because of its underlying strengths, offering a middle ground between the power of the ruler necessary to establish security, and the rights of the governed. The liberal system led to the abolition of borders and globalization, causing some capitals to flee to countries with cheaper labor, resulting in many workers losing their jobs and sources of livelihood, and revealing the weakness of the state and its inability to close its borders. Large disparities between the rich and the poor increased, especially after the rise of neo-liberalism, which differed greatly from classical liberalism in issues of the role of the state and economic policies, and in defining rights and duties between the ruler and the governed. During the periods of Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan, neo-liberalism adopted policies that diminished the role of the state and its influence on the economy, favoring free markets and their role in stimulating the economy and resource distribution. The liberal system experienced disastrous financial crises, starting with the British pound crisis, the Egyptian-Swedish system crisis in the early 1990s, then the Mexican peso crisis in 1994, the Asian financial stock crisis in 1997, and reaching its peak in 2008 with the US mortgage crisis, when global capital rushed into the poorly regulated mortgage market, destroying it, and then destroying the real economy when it exited.