Matt Sleat: Post-liberalism
26 March 2026, 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm
Location: Institute for Policy Research, University of Bath, Claverton Down Bath BA2 7AY
Think tank: Institute for Policy Research
This event hosted by UK think tank the Insitute for Policy Research discusses post-liberalism.
Overview
Professor Matt Sleat discusses post-liberalism: what it is, where it comes from, and why it has gained momentum.
About this event
Liberalism has long shaped political life across the modern West. But in recent years, post-liberalism has become one of the most talked-about ideas on the ‘New Right’, attracting supporters including American Vice-President JD Vance.
In this talk, Professor Matt Sleat (University of Sheffield) discusses post-liberalism: what it is, where it comes from, and why it has gained momentum. He examines the problems he sees in the movement’s diagnosis of today’s political challenges, and argues that its proposed solutions come with grave risks, from authoritarianism to coercion. He also considers how liberals might respond to post-liberalism, and what the shift means for the future of conservative politics.
He is in conversation with Dr David Moon (University of Bath).
This event is open to all.
Speaker biography: Matt Sleat is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Sheffield’s School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations. He works on and has published widely across three main research areas: realist political thought, liberal philosophy, and international relations theory. He is author of two books – Post-Liberalism (Polity, 2025) and Liberal Realism: A Realist Theory of Liberal Politics (MUP, 2013) – and editor of Politics Recovered: Essays on Realist Political Thought (Columbia University Press 2018). He has held research fellowships from the Leverhulme Trust and British Academy, and visiting fellowships at the Australia National University, Queen Mary University of London, Kings College London and the University of Oxford. He is an editor of the European Journal of Political Theory, and from 2017-2023 was co-editor of Political Studies. In 2020, he was awarded the inaugural Mid-Career Prize by the Britain and Ireland Association for Political Thought.
