Empire of Democracy (strapline: The Remaking of the West Since the Cold War, 1971-2019) is a 2019 book by British geographer and scholar Simon Reid-Henry about the transformation of Western democracy arising from neoliberalism and its impacts on political processes.
Reid-Henry said he was inspired to write the book following the 2011 far right wing attacks in Norway (which took place on the last day of his honeymoon), and a desire to identify the underlying trends that had disrupted the liberal and democratic order of the Western world, rather than write about the perpetrator per se. Although Reid-Henry had intended to focus on the geopolitics of the post-1989 world, the book ended up looking at political economy and social trends more broadly, and from an earlier starting point. The title of the book comes from Alexis de Tocquevilles' book Democracy in America which described the trans-national, transforming and expanding nature of American democracy that de Tocqueville witnessed.
The book starts with the period of economic dislocation and social unrest arising out of the 1960s that led to the Nixon shock. Over time a resetting of the post-War political economic order across the Western World as monetarism and market deregulation replace the Keynesian consensus. This order reaches its peak in the Post–Cold War era but flounders after 9/11, the Iraq War, the War in Afghanistan, and especially during the Great Recession. Governments are unable to marshal the necessary political will and creativity to resolve inherent contradictions, and with liberalism having lost its legitimacy and public trust corroded, authoritarian leaders emerge.
Contents
Empire of Democracy is split into three parts. Part I (Democracy Unbound) starts with the breakdown of the Bretton Woods system and progresses through the 1970s and 1980s up to the Revolutions of 1989. The confidence of the post-Cold War period, marked by the 1990s United States boom is covered in Part II (Novus ordo seclorum. Part III (Victory without Peace) serves as the dénouement, rudely starting with the September 11 attacks and concluding with the 2017 inauguration of President Trump.
Prologue A prologue (Two Helicopters) covers Charles de Gaulle's mysterious departure from Paris during the May 68 events, and President Nixon's departure on Marine One following his resignation – events which demonstrated there was significant momentum in the West for the existing political order to be upended
Part I: Democracy Unbound
The Unravelling: The achievements of the post-war world was based on the nation state, planning and consumerism, which came at the cost of alienation, stress and anxiety. Discontent had emerged in the late 1960s, and the Vietnam War created division that lingered into the 1970s. The Crisis of Capitalism: Rising US government expenditure on the Vietnam War and social spending, and a balance of payments crisis, leads to the abandonment of the Bretton Woods system. Western economies are hit by stagflation, the 1973 Oil Crisis, and declining productivity and competitiveness. Unemployment, industrial discord and immigration create upheaval. However green shoots of a new pragmatic consensus slowly emerge, and swift monetary action targeting inflation brings confidence back to the global economy which is increasingly interdependent. The Reckoning: Extreme left wing movements grow in the 1970s. Governments struggle to manage voter expectations who increasingly identify as middle class. Slowly centre left governments, unable to adapt to new realities, are replaced or adapt to neo-liberalism. Instead of confronting these economic trends, the left moves to champion feminism, pacifism, environmentalism and identity politics. The right become ascendant in social as well as economic spheres. People become increasingly anti-authoritarian and libertarian, while business plays a greater role in policy-making. A Split in the World: Domestic and foreign policy are increasingly directed by human rights which are modelled on new concepts of individualism that serve as a cipher for political minimalism. Geopolitics is transformed to adapt to changes in the liberal consensus. Western Europe opens up to the Eastern Bloc. The European Community establishes a technocratic leadership and adopts the characteristics of a sovereign nation state. The political middle is increasingly hollowed out, and the space occupied by pressure groups and non-government organisations. Let Furies Have Their Hour: Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher revolutionise their own countries as they redefine a new social contract. Neoliberalism takes hold in other parts of the world. Working class ideals decline in influence and urban landscapes are transformed. However these ideas hold no solutions to emerging challenges such rising inequality and the AIDS epidemic. Ideology propels the US towards a more confrontationist posture with the Soviet Union, which under Mikhail Gorbachev also begins to make reforms. The Victory: Remaking Europe: Economic stagnation in Eastern Europe, and Gorbachev's repudiation of the Brezhnev Doctrine leads to the sudden collapse of the Soviet bloc. Countries and ideologies compete to redefine what post Cold War Europe would look like, including on the questions of German reunification and east–west relations. The European Community's integrationist agenda gains momentum. The US becomes the sole superpower, with neoliberalism the now default global ideology.
Part II: Novus Ordo Seclorum
America and a World Transformed: The US struggles to understand the post-Cold War landscape. President George Bush Snr intervenes in Panama and Kuwait. Easy victories make the US administration more confident in projecting military power, but increasingly hitches the US to the fate of the Middle East and other global entanglements. East Asia grows economic heft. Gorbachev's ousting in an unsuccessful coup seals the fate of the Soviet Union. Despite the US's global strength, its domestic sphere is plagued by recession, budget deficits, inequality and racial turmoil. Bill Clinton emerges as a leader best suited to America's new peace. The Great Convergence: A liberal institutional order emerges in the post-Cold War era. Former Soviet bloc countries struggle to adapt to free market reforms now demanded by these institutions, and corruption becomes endemic. The European Community becomes the even more integrated European Union, and its members fall in line adopting principles of monetary discipline. The Schengen Area and the European Court of Justice are established. Clinton moves the US towards deregulation and fiscally conservative policies, as do the governments of Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand. A Democratic Peace?: Civil wars emerge across the post-Cold War world. The West increasingly intervenes in the name of liberal values, and the United Nations becomes more involved in peacekeeping. Global institutions rich in transnational relationships become more important. Europe struggles to comprehend and respond to the Bosnian civil war, and the US stumbles in Somalia, Haiti and Iraq. The New Prosperity: The 1990s is marked by a global economic boom and a spirit of optimism. Employment falls, wages rise, share markets rallies and the Internet is seen to herald a new information revolution. In the US, Clinton's 1993 Deficit Reduction Act rolls back Reagan-era tax cuts and reduces government spending, while the Financial Services Modernization Act deregulates the financial sector. With the British electorate experiencing social mobility and prosperity, the UK Labour Party under Tony Blair evolves to make it more electorally acceptable to a consumerist middle class, a trend repeated by other centre-left parties that embrace social responsibility, community values, equality of opportunity and accountability. This has the unanticipated effect of making social democracy dependent on a buoyant economy, and leaves the left weakened. Farewell to All That: Western Governments become more technocratic and personality driven, and the policies of major parties begin to converge. Citizens seen more as stakeholders rather than electors, and voter turnout and union membership drop. Populist leaders are able to capitalise on public disengagement, including Steve Forbes, Silvio Berlusconi, Jörg Haider and Pauline Hanson. Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Contract with America makes US politics more partisan and clientelist. Political action committees become the most important sources of party funding and lobbyists rise in influence. In a landmark 1984 US Supreme Court case (Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.), US federal agencies ability to interpret statutes, and this starts a trend of industries self-regulating. The market encroaches into public space, leading to the gentrification of urban areas. Social welfare is rolled back, and the public now assume greater risk and debt (through credit cards). Films like La Haine, Blair Witch Project, Trainspotting, and American Beauty show how people adapt rather than seek to challenge change. Blueprints for the New Millenium: The left and right produce competing visions for a new world order: the neo-conservative Project for the New American Century seeks to project US values abroad (often with democracy conflated with neoliberalism), while the left rallies against globalism in the Battle of Seattle. The concept of statehood is questioned; even secessionist movements in Scotland and Catalonia based their case on economics rather than nationalism. The US public becomes resigned to politics being unaccountable (especially after the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal); they are instead more focussed on their self-interest. Decision-making is increasingly depoliticised, preventing the hollowed out state from intervening to address emerging inequality. As the Millenium approached the West looked strong, and liberalism would plot the future.
Part III: Victory Without Peace
The Assault on Freedom: The 9/11 attacks intensify contradictions in modern liberal democracies, giving succour to radical neo-conservatism and "The Vulcans" who see freedom not just as a political value as much as a motor of history. The security state, demonstrated by the PATRIOT Act and Guantanamo Bay, gains new powers and the trend for smaller government is reversed. The US is motivated to demonstrate its superpower status and invades Iraq, but finds occupation difficult. Global agreements were airbrushed away. Islamist terrorist attacks take place in Spain, Indonesia and elsewhere, and the resulting heightened security awareness in the West leads to borders and social fissures. Multiculturalism is challenged in Europe, which is unable to integrate a growing minority population into economic life. Western belligerence peaks until around 2006 when greater oversight is achieved, not through a public outcry but through legal processes.