The Liberal Balance of Power and the Four Horsemen of Its Apocalypse

Jack Snyder argues that liberalism’s historical success rests on four competitive mechanisms: free markets, democratic elections, an open marketplace of ideas, and a liberal approach to the balance of power. Their effectiveness depends on a “visible hand” of laws, norms, expertise, institutions, and social practices regulating competition. He argues that the post-1945 liberal order worked better than previous illiberal and laissez-faire liberal alternatives because market competition was embedded within welfare states, Bretton Woods institutions, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and democratic accountability.