The following essay originally appeared in print in Palladium 01. To receive original content in future print editions, subscribe here.


We launched Palladium in 2018 with “Towards the Post-Liberal Synthesis.” It centered our analysis on the exhaustion and looming failure of liberalism—the governing ideology of Western societies—and launched us on this Governance Futurism project to replace it. We hold to this vision: it is possible to build a new and better governing worldview that salvages the victories of our current paradigm and overcomes its flaws with a new and better vector for progress.

The intervening years have only confirmed the diagnosis of deep crisis.

At home, trust in traditional institutions of authority has declined. Political polarization has never been higher in recent memory. Problems ranging from climate change to deindustrialization remain unaddressed. Other problems equally as dire lurk beneath our notice. Abroad, countries such as Russia, Turkey, and Hungary are confidently locking in a more authoritarian model of government. China, the authoritarian state par excellence, is on track to surpass the United States economically and perhaps even displace it as the world’s preeminent global power.

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