Acemoglu’s working-class liberalism explains why mature democracies are losing legitimacy. Pakistan presents a harder problem: constitutional democracy, organised labour and local self-government were never allowed to create the social compact.

An illuminating essay by Shahid Sattar and Nadeem Ul Haque, "Elites, Tech, and Populism: The Implosion of Modern Liberalism", does what a worthwhile article should do: it opens a larger debate. Drawing on Nobel laureate Daron Acemoglu’s new book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy?, the authors argue that liberal democracy undermined itself by abandoning the economic and political foundations that once secured popular support.

The diagnosis travels only part of the way to Pakistan. Liberal democracy is imploding in some Western countries after ceasing to deliver shared prosperity. Pakistan’s problem is historically different. Constitutional democracy was repeatedly prevented from acquiring supremacy over concentrated power. Pakistan cannot restore a liberal order it never possessed; it must first construct one.

Acemoglu begins with the post-war democratic bargain. Industrial expansion created millions of reasonably paid jobs. Trade unions possessed bargaining power. Productivity gains were shared through wages, public education, healthcare, housing and social security. Citizens defended democratic institutions because those institutions appeared to defend them.

Automation, deindustrialisation, globalisation and financialisation eventually weakened this arrangement. Capital became more mobile, labour less organised and technology more capable of replacing routine work. A college-educated professional class gained influence while becoming socially detached from workers. 

Progressive politics increasingly addressed culture and identity while economic insecurity deepened. Populists occupied the resulting space, identifying genuine grievances but directing them against manufactured enemies rather than concentrated economic power. This sequence cannot simply be transplanted to Pakistan.

Pakistan never experienced an extended period in which industrialisation, organised labour, universal public services and accountable government produced a durable democratic compact. It moved from colonial administration to a security-dominated state, interrupted constitutional rule, concentrated landownership, patronage capitalism and weak........

© The Friday Times