Liberal Pragmatism and Liberal Fantasy in the Era of Backlash Politics

Jack Snyder's book Human Rights for Pragmatists: Social Power in Modern Times is less a theory of human rights than a political sociology of liberal modernization. Focusing on that account, this article argues that the story of liberal modernization Snyder’s book presents is a distortional fable and, as such, undermines its own claims to pragmatism. This review further contends that this fable of liberal modernization creates a fantasy in which the solution to the problems of contemporary liberal states and the liberal international order is more liberalism. The review concludes by suggesting that any pragmatic account must at least take seriously the possibility that liberalism is part of the problem and, therefore, that it might not be the solution.