In the wake of the Cold War, Francis Fukuyama portrayed the “last man” as free but devoid of ambitions, polite but unheroic, somebody castrated by the satisfaction of his desires but a very agreeable fellow. He is married to democracy, but we suspect no longer in love with it. The “last man” of this lecture is a different one. He has arrived when history has returned. He is anxious and mistrustful. He is overtaken by demographic anxiety. He thinks he lives in the dregs of time. He tends to believe that the next elections should be the last elections. Why is he so terrified? And where does he come from? What can we expect from him? And how will he change our idea of democracy?

The paper explores the lessons about the fragility and resilience of liberal democracy, which could be drawn on the basis of the Bulgarian experience since 1989. Bulgaria is an interesting case of a country that has achieved probably more than was initially expected from it. Despite the lack of any serious and lasting historical legacy of liberal democracy from the pre-communist period, and despite crippling economic crises in the 1990s, Bulgaria has managed to become a NATO and EU member and has registered impressive economic growth and development over the last decades. Yet, the country suffers from high levels of systemic corruption and extreme political fragmentation and instability. All of this makes Bulgaria a good case for the examination of the factors of fragility and resilience of liberal democracy in a transition context.

My speech will focus on the crisis of liberal democracy over the past twenty years, viewed through the lens of the classic sociological distinction between society and community. For a long time, the project of liberal democracy was complemented by the institution of the welfare state as a source of social solidarity. However, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this institution was gradually abandoned in favor of a purely formal and rational framework that combines procedural legal rationality with instrumental economic rationality. Today's "revenge of political passions" and the alarming rise of national-populist and conservative-xenophobic parties and movements pose a challenge that liberal democracy struggles to address by merely striving for more political and economic rationality—that is, more society against the regression to what is considered a retrograde community. Calls for the rule of law, the separation of powers, and human rights will not be able to ensure the social stability of liberal democracies in the near future. The battle for their future will take place precisely on the terrain of the community. The question is: can liberal democracies offer, and if so, what kind of community could they propose in opposition to the return to the tribal community desired by nationalists?

At the very beginning of my talk, I shall introduce a crucial distinction between the terms “resentment” and “ressentiment.” We can take for granted that every protest action is accompanied by resentment, if we understand the latter with Peter Strawson as a negative reactive attitude to someone who is causing harm to oneself. However, “ressentiment” entails two additional semantic components, namely that the receiver of harm first suppresses her reaction to the offender and then redirects this reaction onto uninvolved collective others who become objects of her dehumanizing hate. Such objects might be immigrants, ethnic minorities, foreign nations, “global elites,” etc. In a next step, I shall share some thoughts on the social mechanisms and reasons for the development and spread of ressentiments, as well as on why and how those who are affected by them erect visible and invisible walls around themselves and so erode liberal democracies.

This talk revisits Fukuyama’s account of liberalism in the context of the rise of artificial intelligence. It critically discusses Fukuyama’s reflections on the direction of human history and raises the question of whether classical liberalism is contingent on aspects of human cognition and nature that AI may fundamentally alter or challenge. The talk considers both the threats posed by AI, e.g., technological totalitarianism and increased economic and power inequalities, and its promises of improving knowledge and democratic institutions. It assesses the resilience of liberalism amid transformative technological change and questions how its principles can withstand the challenges posed by AI.

The presentation is based on a book—When Moses Came to Poland—a journalist’s account how Middle Eastern and African migrants/refugees became caught up in the emergence of a particular type of securitized ethno-nationalism under the Law and Justice (PiS)-led government in Poland between 2015 and 2023—and its continuation under the apparently more liberal Civic Platform (PO)-led coalition after December 2023. It aims to unpick how coded semantic and discursive fields, as they relate to ‘bodies’—both figurative and actual—became crucial sites of contestation within a dialectically framed public space. By applying aspects of critical psychoanalytical and postcolonial theories, as well as models of securitization, it explores how this happened and offers tentative hypotheses as to why it happened and where it could lead, for Poland, the CEE region, and in a global context.

Information operations to influence decision making are not a new phenomenon, but nowadays are implemented on a large scale and in a much more complex and contested information space. Integrity of the info-space and its resilience are of critical importance for the liberal democracies based on a participatory decision-making process. The paper explores the challenges to decision making in liberal democracies and the influence of the information operations of authoritarian regimes and influence groups. Research in Bulgaria on Russian malign interference is identifying key vulnerabilities of the society and instruments used by our opponents. Based on conclusions from the 2013–2024 studies, an approach to counter disinformation is proposed, supported by the model for capabilities development (including use of advanced technologies such as Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning, AI at large). Building required capacity includes an extensive network of advanced training, hackathons, exercises, and study reports to prepare for continuous operations, not only in response to disinformation campaigns, but to shape the environment and prepare for the future. The integration of research, capability development, and operations in an ecosystem is at the core of the comprehensive approach proposed. Key instrument for change management in the area is the impact assessment dashboard and the related governance model to maintain continuous improvement of the ecosystem once established.