Postliberal Order (Substack)
Substack newsletter founded February 2022, just before publication of Adrian Vermeule’s Common Good Constitutionalism; primary online publishing platform for the Postliberal intellectual network: Vermeule, Patrick Deneen, Gladden Pappin, Pecknold
What It Is
The Postliberal Order Substack was founded in February 2022, timed to coincide with the anticipated publication of Vermeule’s Common Good Constitutionalism. It became the main online home for the postliberal intellectual network — providing a direct-to-reader outlet for essays, arguments, and analysis that moved faster than academic journals and with fewer editorial constraints than mainstream publications.
The first post was by Patrick Deneen, titled “A Good That Is Common.” In contrast to Vermeule’s abstract, philosophically dense approach, Deneen in this inaugural essay emphasized the “commonness” of common goodness — the needs and concerns “identified in the ordinary requirements of ordinary people.” This highlighted a real tension within the postliberal camp: Vermeule’s common good is defined by classical natural law and ultimately by Catholic theology; Deneen’s version aimed at something more populist and rooted in everyday life.
Contributors
The core writers for Postliberal Order:
- Adrian Vermeule — constitutional law; integralism
- Patrick Deneen — political theory; common-good conservatism
- Gladden Pappin — political philosophy; Aristopopulism; Hungary connection
- C.C. Pecknold — Catholic theology at Catholic University of America
The Substack became the venue for the movement’s rapid-response commentary, theoretical development, and mutual reinforcement. When Compact magazine (co-founded by Ahmari) served the cross-ideological left-right audience, Postliberal Order served the inner circle.
Significance
The founding of Postliberal Order marks the moment the Postliberal movement consolidated its institutional presence. The Substack allowed the network to build a paying subscriber base independent of university presses, think tanks, or media outlets — giving the movement an economic base outside the donor-dependent institutions that the rest of the New Right depended on. It also allowed immediate, unmediated publication of theoretical positions that academic journals would take years to process.
Field notes that the common-good language proliferating from this platform was “as flexible a concept as any good Schmittian could hope for” — capacious enough to be filled with whatever substantive content Vermeule’s integralism or Deneen’s communitarian populism required.
Cross-References
- Adrian Vermeule — co-founder and primary theorist
- Patrick Deneen — wrote inaugural post; political theory wing
- Gladden Pappin — political philosophy wing; Hungary connection
- Postliberalism — the movement the Substack represents
- Catholic Integralism — the theological underpinning of the Substack’s core
- Common Good Constitutionalism — Vermeule’s book whose publication the Substack coincided with
- Compact — the parallel left-right magazine co-founded by Ahmari