Illiberalism Studies as a Field

This introductory chapter argues that the term illiberal(ism) provides a new frame for understanding societal change. In contrast to existing concepts, illiberalism recenters our focus on liberalism and can therefore fruitfully account for different dimensions usually not taken into account. This chapter first advances a definition of illiberalism—in contradistinction to other concepts such as populism, conservatism, and authoritarianism—before exploring five main contentions related to this definition. It then moves to a broader discussion on the entanglements between liberalism and illiberalism, looking at liberalism’s own spaces of contention, its multiple scripts, its encapsulation of Western metamodernity, and how illiberalism contributes to the ongoing deconstruction of liberal hegemony. Finally, it delves into the “amplifying feedback loop” effect of illiberalism, which is both a by-product of the contradictions of liberalism and an amplification of liberalism’s challenges.