Liberalism Isn't Rule by Elites

BUT PATRICK DENEEN’S “COMMON-GOOD CONSERVATISM” ALMOST CERTAINLY WOULD BE

- STEPHANIE SLADE

A THIRD OF the way through Regime Change (Sentinel), a table appears. The top two quadrants are “Progressive Liberal” and “Classical Liberal.” The lower left is “Marxist.” The lower right is blank.

That open spot will soon be filled by the author’s proposed alternative. Like Marxism, he says, his approach is “deeply critical of the resulting alienation of humans from the fruits of their labor, from knowledge of how their work contributed to a common good, and from each other.” But unlike Marxism, this system is fundamentally conservative rather than revolutionary, prizing stability, continuity, and order above all. It is economically leftist, socially reactionary, and unapologetically anti-liberal.

Students of history may be relieved to hear that University of Notre Dame political scientist Patrick Deneen is not—despite what the schematic just described might suggest—arguing for fascism. Instead, the fourth quadrant represents what he refers to throughout the book as “common-good conservatism.”