ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that liberalism has, since the end of the Second World War, cut many of the ties that bound it to its founding principles. However, the post-war social democratic state, with its expansive welfare system and reasonably civilised labour laws, can't magically be brought back to life. The modern welfare state was constructed on the back of sustained economic growth in the real economy that provided productive work for millions across the West. Today, that growth is nowhere to be seen. Capital has already expanded into undeveloped markets. In material terms, there aren't too many more places left for it to work its magic. A sense of hope and a commitment to imagining a better world do not instantly transport us into the realm of totalitarianism. Hannah Arendt, Karl Popper and Isaiah Berlin assumed Utopianism and ideology to be tightly connected. For all three, ideology and utopianism present a significant threat to civilised post-war social life.
