What Happened to Liberal Democracy.jpg
What Happened to Liberal Democracy.jpg

What Happened to Liberal Democracy? by Daron Acemoglu

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Hardcover:

International Bestseller

From Daron Acemoglu, 2024 Nobel laureate in economics and coauthor of Why Nations Fail, an ambitious and expansive inquiry into the biggest story in global politics over the last hundred years: the rise and fall of liberal democracy.

"A very important work and a must-read." —Thomas Piketty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

"Daron Acemoglu is one of the most brilliant and insightful thinkers I’ve ever known. This book is a tour de force that left me feeling more optimistic about the future than I have in a long time." —Steven Levitt, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Freakonomics

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 raised hopes that we were one step closer to the triumph of liberalism. Soon, many predicted, we would all be living in functional liberal democracies. Sustained economic growth would benefit all segments of society and war would be a relic of the past. A generation later, one can only ask: What happened?

Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu argues in this powerful book that liberal democracy flourished when it pursued its core promises of shared prosperity, democratic governance, and the free pursuit of knowledge. But liberalism, a philosophy built to challenge power, never fully adjusted to becoming the establishment. Nor was it able to deal with the economic and social disruptions that digital technologies wrought. Worse, in the postindustrial economy, liberalism turned its back on its core promises. As a segment of college-educated elites became politically dominant and separated from the rest of society, they sowed the seeds of widespread inequality while intensifying efforts to reshape mass culture and values.

Acemoglu, using the interdisciplinary lens that has won him acclaim, documents the extraordinary, unparalleled progress that liberalism created, and recounts how liberal democratic institutions plunged themselves into crisis over the last several decades. Looking at rapid advances in technology, shifts in regulatory environments, global political history, and economics, Acemoglu lucidly lays out the successes and failures of our most important political system. And he envisions a new way forward, which he calls working-class liberalism: a philosophy that prioritizes shared prosperity, empowers communities, and accommodates a range of values and views.

International Bestseller

From Daron Acemoglu, 2024 Nobel laureate in economics and coauthor of Why Nations Fail, an ambitious and expansive inquiry into the biggest story in global politics over the last hundred years: the rise and fall of liberal democracy.

"A very important work and a must-read." —Thomas Piketty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

"Daron Acemoglu is one of the most brilliant and insightful thinkers I’ve ever known. This book is a tour de force that left me feeling more optimistic about the future than I have in a long time." —Steven Levitt, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Freakonomics

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 raised hopes that we were one step closer to the triumph of liberalism. Soon, many predicted, we would all be living in functional liberal democracies. Sustained economic growth would benefit all segments of society and war would be a relic of the past. A generation later, one can only ask: What happened?

Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu argues in this powerful book that liberal democracy flourished when it pursued its core promises of shared prosperity, democratic governance, and the free pursuit of knowledge. But liberalism, a philosophy built to challenge power, never fully adjusted to becoming the establishment. Nor was it able to deal with the economic and social disruptions that digital technologies wrought. Worse, in the postindustrial economy, liberalism turned its back on its core promises. As a segment of college-educated elites became politically dominant and separated from the rest of society, they sowed the seeds of widespread inequality while intensifying efforts to reshape mass culture and values.

Acemoglu, using the interdisciplinary lens that has won him acclaim, documents the extraordinary, unparalleled progress that liberalism created, and recounts how liberal democratic institutions plunged themselves into crisis over the last several decades. Looking at rapid advances in technology, shifts in regulatory environments, global political history, and economics, Acemoglu lucidly lays out the successes and failures of our most important political system. And he envisions a new way forward, which he calls working-class liberalism: a philosophy that prioritizes shared prosperity, empowers communities, and accommodates a range of values and views.

  • Publisher: Dutton

    Title: What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity

    Author: Daron Acemoglu

    On Sale Date: August 11, 2026

    ISBN 13: 979-8-2171-8216-9

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $32.00

    BISAC: Political Science / Comparative Politics; Economic History

    Page Count: 416

    Dimensions: 6.3 in W | 9.29 in H

    Weight: 20.2 oz

  • Daron Acemoglu is an MIT Institute Professor and one of the most cited economists of his generation. In 2024, he shared the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Simon Johnson and James Robinson for their research on how institutions shape prosperity. He's the coauthor, with Robinson, of the international bestseller Why Nations Fail, and with Johnson, of Power and Progress. Across three decades of work, Acemoglu has built a career on a single, urgent question: why do some societies thrive while others fall apart? In this book, he turns that lens on the present.

  • Critics and fellow bestselling authors are calling it important, brilliant, and necessary:

    • "A very important work and a must-read." —Thomas Piketty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century

    • "One of the most brilliant and insightful thinkers I’ve ever known... a tour de force that left me feeling more optimistic about the future than I have in a long time." —Steven Levitt, #1 New York Times bestselling coauthor of Freakonomics

    • "Acemoglu lays out a coherent vision for a liberal democracy of the 21st century, with clarity, conviction, and nuance." —Steven Pinker, bestselling author of Enlightenment Now

    • "Necessary and inspiring." —Angus Deaton, 2015 Nobel laureate in Economics

This book is for you if

  • You want to understand what actually broke liberal democracy, not just another op-ed's theory of it.

  • You read Why Nations Fail and want to see that same lens turned on the present.

  • You suspect inequality, automation, and populism are one connected story, not three separate crises.

  • You're tired of diagnoses and want a real path back to shared prosperity.

  • You want to know what role AI and technology are playing in reshaping who holds power.

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