This book is a discussion of the nature and limits of liberalism. By the term ‘liberalism’ here, the author means the doctrine that gets its most typical exemplification in what have come to be called ‘liberal democracies’. Though there is no doubt that liberal democracies have evolved considerably since their early inception in post-Westphalian Europe, throughout this evolution they were shaped by a guiding conceptual framework of ideas and principles; and it is those ideas and principles the author has in mind in using the term ‘liberalism’.