The Open Society as an Enemy – Review

In The Open Society as an Enemy, J. McKenzie Alexander reinterprets Karl Popper’s concept of the open society in light of contemporary threats including populist nationalism, digital surveillance, and structural inequality. Reviewing the book, Mazlum Özkan highlights Alexander’s ambitious proposal for “multifaceted social engineering” as a response to the erosion of democratic values and civic trust. While praising the book’s integration of cosmopolitan ethics, transparency, and communitarian critique, Özkan notes gaps in its global applicability and underdeveloped attention to grassroots mobilization. The review situates Alexander’s work within broader debates on the limits of liberal democracy, the future of systemic reform, and the philosophical tensions between openness and control in the 21st century.