Liberals once believed that the retreat of democracy would be akin to water flowing uphill. The fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 (recalled by the BBC’s John Simpson on page 30) was greeted as the beginning of a new era of liberal hegemony. “I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation,” Tony Blair would later declare in his 2005 Labour Party conference speech. “You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.”
Globalisation’s apparent triumph proved a false dawn, however. Thirty years after the wall came down, liberal democracy is under threat across the world.
Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month
Content from our partners
