The Light that Failed: A Reckoning.

• Author: Warner, Matt
• Position: Book review

The Light that Failed: A Reckoning

Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes

New York: Penguin Books, 2020, 256 pp.

Some butterflies have evolved to resemble the face of an owl. This form of imitation can deter predators, but no one would expect a butterfly to do all the things owls do. In ecology, this is known as isomorphic mimicry. Development experts have used this phenomenon as a metaphor to explain the folly of installing copycat versions of Western institutions--the norms, laws, and governance structures of liberal democracy--in diverse countries. They may look right at certain angles, but on closer inspection they don't function as hoped.

If underwhelming performance were the only consequence of the West's attempt to spread liberal democracy abroad, we could take pride in the attempt. But in The Light that Failed: A Reckoning, political scientists Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue the consequences are much worse. In their words, "[a]fter the fall of the [Berlin] Wall, across-the-board imitation of the West was widely accepted as the most effective way to democratize previously nondemocratic societies. Largely because of the moral asymmetry it implied, this conceit has now become a pre-eminent target of populist rage."

That moral asymmetry, they argue, is the untenable difference between the superiority of the imitated over the presumed inferiority of the imitators, in this case the West and those who spent the last 30 years trying to catch up. In short, democratic institutions, built in this way, are likely to fail and that failure then sparks feelings of humiliation and resentment among transitioning populations.

Eventually, the authors argue, this sense of defeat leaves the electorate vulnerable to alternative narratives proffered by authoritarianleaning strongmen who promise to restore native pride by rejecting the West explicitly. Citing would-be autocrats such as Hungary's Viktor Orban and Russia's Vladimir Putin, Krastev and Holmes build their case for claiming that "[dispraising the West and declaring its institutions not worth imitating can be explained as imaginary revenge bom of resentment."

For example, in Putin's victory speech following the 2012 presidential election, he told the crowds, "[w]e have demonstrated that nobody can impose anything on us. Nobody can impose anything." This resonates. One retired Russian military officer is quoted as saying, "I want a Russian idea for the Russian people; I don't want the Americans to...