The Future of Liberal Democracy

Abstract

From the earliest theorising on political forms until about one hundred or so years ago, with only occasional exceptions, democracy was not in favour. Generally it meant the rule of the unlettered and the unwashed, the reign of the mob, destructive of all good order and civilised living. Now the word has become so sacred that only a few dare to admit that they are anti-democratic. It has become virtually the sole effective source of political legitimacy. But although the nations of the world now pledge their allegiance to democracy, this does not mean they are united by a common ideal.¹ Democracy means different things to different peoples. The Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe favour the word ‘democratic’ in their formal titles. This does not mean that they are, or claim to be, democracies in the sense of the term in Western nations. Democracy is conceived, not in terms of a free-enterprise economy, a democratic franchise, and a system of competing parties, but as the abolition of an oppressive capitalist class of owners of production. And many former European African colonies see democracy as the process of obtaining mass support for a vision of national independence, and freedom from the vestiges of a colonial mentality. The goals of modernisation, increased productivity, and national self-awareness can only be achieved through a single-party rule which is, therefore, the instrument of democracy, not its antithesis.²