Introduction

The Introduction offers broad discussion of challenges to liberal democracy and puts them into contemporary, historical, and scholarly contexts. The authors explain the rationale for adopting a synoptic perspective in this book, aimed at capturing three core developments: the increased use of emergency powers, the rise in authoritarian and populist politics, and the revolution in information and communications technology. They show how governments have increasingly turned to extraordinary measures derogating the rule of law, personal liberty, and democratic processes to respond to crisis conditions spurred by pandemics, terrorism, political and social unrest, and financial crises. Recounting the arguments of the contributors, the editors engage key theoretical and empirical questions raised by states of exceptions, new technologies, and contemporary manifestations of democratic and anti-democratic politics to explain crosscutting manifestations of a liberal disorder.