Theme Panel: Contestations of the Liberal Script in a Global Perspective

July 21, 2025 APSA Annual Meeting, Theme Panels Comments Off on Theme Panel: Contestations of the Liberal Script in a Global Perspective

In-Person Roundtable

Participants:

  • (Chair) Thomas Risse, Freie Universität Berlin
  • (Presenter) Michael Zuern, WZB Berlin Social Science Center
  • (Presenter) David A. Lake, University of California, San Diego
  • (Presenter) Stephanie Anderson, University of Wyoming
  • (Presenter) Cristiane Carneiro, University of Sao Paulo
  • (Presenter) Tanja A. Boerzel, Freie Universität Berlin

Session Description:

Around the globe, liberal ideas and institutions are under pressure. Authoritarian regimes claim superiority of their developmental models referring to their seemingly higher efficiency and effectiveness in fighting pandemics, reducing social inequality, or controlling migration. Likewise, populists of various colors attack liberal elites for their failure to address these societal challenges, accusing them of moral bankruptcy. Postcolonial critics refer to the implicit complicity, if not the root cause of colonial structures, arguing that liberalism has served as justification for violence, exploitation, exclusion, and injustice. Criticism is also voiced by supporters of liberalism. They denounce the liberal hypocrisy of using double standards, highlighting the blatant discrepancy between liberal principles and illiberal practices, as showcased by the border regimes of liberal democracies. In a similar vein, progressive liberals deplore the societal rift and rising inequality produced by neoliberal policies. Liberal ideas, institutions and practices are contested both from within and outside liberalism. The roundtable discusses the various contestations of the liberal script from a global and comparative perspective. It is based on a book series just published by Oxford University Press on “Contestations of the Liberal Script” edited by the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence at Freie Universität Berlin and its international partners. Panel participants focus on polarization and radicalization around the globe (Börzel), the type of contestants from a comparative perspective (Zürn), a global public opinion survey on attitudes toward the liberal script (Giebler), deep contestations of the Liberal International Order (Lake), the crisis of US democracy (Anderson), and the contestations of liberalism in Latin America (Lucena).