Heyday of "Western liberalism" in public discourse was in the 1980s and early-mid 90s, ehen US managed to win the Cold War, and the Washington consensus reigned supreme

Since then, success of China has shown that economic growth is not inconsistent with political illiberalism https://twitter.com/dhume/status/1253511375441268736

But the West does not seem to have acknowledged this setback

There is still the old Friedmanite / Reaganite rhetoric on free markets, small government, private enterprise, deregulation etc

Which has its place. But it lacks the same zing as in the mid 80s

There is constant parroting of the same buzz words

But the world is not adhering to those models. We haven't reached the "end of history"

China shows no signs of political freedom despite growing immeasurably richer over the past 30 years