Patrick Deneen

Patrick J. Deneen is a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame and the author of Why Liberalism Failed (2018) and Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future (2023) (Publishers Weekly, Public Seminar). He is one of the four founders of the Postliberal Order newsletter, according to the Los Angeles Review of Books, which reviewed Regime Change together with Sohrab Ahmari's Tyranny, Inc.

Regime Change. Publishers Weekly summarised the 2023 book as arguing for what Deneen calls a common-good conservatism, combining attention to working-class economics with support for family, community and church, and for the deliberate formation of a new elite rather than populist revolt. Its proposals include national service, an enlarged House of Representatives and workers' councils. An essay at Public Seminar contrasted the book's combative tone with the 2018 book's warning that the end of liberalism was not something to be wished for.

Relationship to integralism. Deneen's place in the integralist debate is contested. Baylor University's Religion Watch reported in 2019 that critics had linked Deneen and like-minded thinkers to integralism and that he rejected the charge. Others treat him as part of a wider movement with Adrian Vermeule: Law & Liberty discussed the two together in an essay on integralism and toleration, and Jan-Werner Müller, in the London Review of Books, treated Deneen as a follower of Vermeule on constitutional theory and noted that he has often been portrayed as a major intellectual influence on Vice President JD Vance. Le Grand Continent, introducing a 2025 interview with Deneen, likewise reported that Vance cites him as a central influence. TradWatch™ describes Deneen as a postliberal and, following his own account, does not label him an integralist.