Rethinking Liberalism

A collection of Richard Bellamy's essays from the 1990s on the changing character of liberalism. He describes how liberalism emerged during the late-19th and early-20th centuries as the ethos of a modern industrial society, and shows how many of its central concepts have been undermined by subsequent social developments. To illustrate the argument, Bellamy critically examines a number of contemporary liberal theorists - Hegel, Berlin, T.H. Green, John Stuart Mill, Guido de Ruggeiro, Carl Schmitt and Schumpeter - arguing that their theories contain fatal flaws, either because they failed to modify their ideas to meet the challenges of contemporary complex and pluralist societies, or because, although they accept that the pluralism of modern societies undermines the traditional foundations for liberalism, they believe that liberalism can be reconceived in neutral and political terms. Bellamy disputes this analysis, arguing that the transformation of liberal thought discussed in Part One has gone further than these writers realize.
In the final chapters, he outlines his own views on the failings of liberal theory and how these affect liberal practice; offers an overview of the debates; and presents his alternative of how liberalism might be reinvented for the 21st century - democratic liberalism.