What's Left of Liberal Democracy?

The People are not the problem. The ruling class are.

For generations the people living in the western world were told that they lived in liberal democracies that were significantly different to dictatorial and authoritarian regimes. We had the mid 20th century dictatorships to contrast with our ‘liberal democracy’, as well as older forms of tyranny like feudalism and monarchical autocracy.

We had evolved beyond all that. Our freedom was preserved by key features of a ‘liberal democracy’. What John Locke and other Enlightenment philosophers had described had come to pass. The West had accountable Democracy and it was a glorious thing.

So what was this ‘liberal democracy’? Well it was a checklist mix of political changes, economic successes, and grand statements or understandings about individual rights and general principles of governance. It was both a moral framework of understanding with philosophical roots, AND a practical system of institutions and political mechanisms designed to develop those idealized philosophical promises in the real world.