“The current crisis was far from inevitable. Politicians made consistently bad choices. In doing so, they fostered a crisis of confidence in political institutions, empowered anti-system candidates, and produced a new Cold War as dangerous as the last.” — Ian Shapiro

The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 was a moment of extraordinary euphoria. Fukuyama even described it as the end of history. But what seems to have really fallen in November ’89 was the vitality of democracy. Almost forty years later, we have Donald Trump, Marine Le Pen, and, perhaps most worrying of all, Keir Starmer. Callous and inept politicians are breaking our democratic world. Our job is to put it back together.

That’s the thesis of a new book by Ian Shapiro — Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale. In After the Fall, Shapiro argues that it’s politicians who have created today’s crisis of democracy. His pivotal moment is 2008 rather than 1989. The global financial crisis was the inflection point — the moment at which the corruption of the neoliberal order became self-evident, when elites bailed out the banks and we see the birth of left and right wing illiberal populism.

The roots go back before 2008. Clinton’s greatest failure, Shapiro argues, was not NAFTA or welfare reform. It was Russia. Yeltsin wanted to join NATO. Even Putin, in his early years in power, acknowledged that Russia considered itself European. George Kennan, Brent Scowcroft and Richard Nixon warned that expanding NATO eastward would create a new enemy. Clinton ignored them all. So history repeated itself in the form of Versailles rather than the Marshall Plan.

So how to raise ourselves up after this fall? What road to take? Maps, Shapiro suggests, aren’t always helpful. The New Deal had no GPS algorithm. FDR invented it on the fly. What democratic governments need now, he insists, is massive investment in physical, technological, and labor market infrastructure. Charismatic leaders matter. But the ideas matter more. We need politicians who take risks. Otherwise we’ll be saddled with Keir Starmer and our current crisis of extraordinary dysphoria.

Five Takeaways

• 2008, Not 1989, Was the Inflection Point. The financial crisis exposed the neoliberal model, bailed out the banks, and left behind a population mobilizable by political entrepreneurs. Elites returned to business as usual. They didn’t realize business as usual was over.

• We Repeated the Mistake of Versailles. Yeltsin wanted to join NATO. Early Putin said Russia considered itself European. Kennan, Scowcroft, Nixon all warned that expanding NATO eastward would create a new enemy. Clinton ignored them. We created the enemy we warned ourselves about.

• Politicians Broke the World. Not capitalism. Not culture. Specific politicians making specific bad decisions at specific moments of choice. Clinton on NATO expansion. Bush on Iraq. Obama on the financial crisis response. These were decisions, not fates. The current situation is not irreversible.

• Starmer as Exhibit A. He came in with a massive parliamentary majority and nothing to do with it. Tiny step left, tiny step right, reverse. Trump’s policies came from Project 2025 — the ramp he ran on. Without a ramp, even a charismatic leader stumbles.

• The New Deal Had No Blueprint. FDR made it up as he went along. What democratic governments need now: massive infrastructure investment — physical, tech, labor market. The CHIPS Act model. Incentivize business to retrain workers. Without it, there will be another Trump. And another. And another.

About the Guest

Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale and the author of After the Fall: From the End of History to the Crisis of Democracy (Basic Books, May 5, 2026).

References

After the Fall by Ian Shapiro (Basic Books, May 5, 2026)

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Chapters:

00:00:31 Introduction: from 1989 euphoria to 2026 crisis
00:02:28 2008 as the real inflection point
00:04:55 Are elites part of the problem?
00:07:56 Clinton’s missed opportunity: Russia and the Marshall Plan
00:12:13 Kennan: if we don’t do this, we’ll have a new enemy
00:13:54 The mistake of Versailles repeated
00:19:00 Bush, 9/11, and squandered legitimacy
00:24:00 Obama and the financial crisis
00:28:00 The rise of the political entrepreneurs
00:33:00 Brexit and the British left
00:38:00 Starmer: power without ideas
00:40:22 Project 2025 as the ramp Trump ran on
00:44:20 Charisma vs. ideas
00:47:52 Project 2029: what is to be done?
00:48:33 Massive infrastructure investment
00:50:57 Without a ramp, another Trump. And another.