The Civitas Podcast Episode 35: The Collapse of Global Liberalism - A Conversation with Philip Pilkington
Sep 30, 2025
Philip Pilkington, macro-economist and author, offers a provocative take on economics, liberalism, and geopolitics. He contrasts macro and micro thinking, explores China’s distinct model and multipolarity, and traces liberalism’s origins and cultural effects. He warns of liberal decline and discusses re-civilization, the role of churches, and policy levers for social renewal.
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Macro Versus Micro: Different Sciences
- Macroeconomics studies flows of money, output, trade and financial institutions rather than individual utility-maximizing behavior.
- Philip Pilkington argues macroeconomics is more scientific than microeconomics and better suited to explain large-scale economic trends.
Markets Can Erode Cultural Goods
- Economic activity shouldn't automatically be expanded into market relations without evaluating cultural and social value.
- Pilkington uses camping grounds and subsidized Hungarian pubs to show markets can erode cultural goods and community life.
Rediscovering Jesuit–Confucian Dialogue
- Pilkington describes traveling to China and researching historical East–West dialogues like the Jesuits' exchanges with Confucianism.
- He and David Duesenberry propose renewed civilizational dialogue as multipolarity emerges.
