What is a Liberal Democracy?

Liberal Democracy: A form of modern 'Republican' governance that places the 'Supremacy of God and Rule of Law' as the highest governing principle. This means the legal protection of human rights, civil liberties and economic liberties are the highest level of law. This form of democracy is a practical implementation of the principles of classical liberalism. A liberal democracy strives to attain a balance of power, separating government into 'branches', each of which have limited power and all of which have powers to restrain or limit the other branches. No branch of government in a liberal democracy has the power, or mandate, to violate these principles as inalienable rights cannot be surrendered in the 'social contract'.

Liberal Democracy restrains government to the duties of governance. This means government is responsible for protecting the rights of the people, through national defense, law enforcement, justice and legislating the 'rules of the game', effectively regulation of business and personal interaction where the actions of the individual may impair the 'life, liberty or property' of another.

In a true liberal democracy, in common with a 'Classical Republic', government is provided by a Meritocracy, what the ancient Greeks called Aristocracy (rule of the best), not to be confused with hereditary medieval or modern Aristocracy. In modern liberal democracy, voting is a privilege earned by demonstrating a threshold of individual responsibility, usually a property threshold. This means that only those with 'skin in the game' may direct the actions of government. Liberal philosophers have spent some time considering other 'thresholds' for voting that would preclude hereditary wealth from conferring the privilege of voting on someone who has not actually contributed anything to society. Rhodesia, the last liberal democracy to exist in the modern era, replaced their property threshold for voting with an income threshold, effectively restricting the vote to those who were actively contributing to society.

In addition, a true liberal democracy would not allow those who receive income from the government to vote. This is a clear conflict of interest and, like insider trading, participating in cartels, price fixing, etc, is immoral and should attract a significant prison sentence. Allowing those employed by government to select it's leadership creates a system of political plunder, a kleptocracy in which the people are taxed at ever increasing rates so the ruling party can purchase the voting loyalty of the bureaucracy.

In most liberal democracies, these principles are recorded in a constitution or charter. In British Common Law, most charters have been absorbed into statute law and the protection of 'life, liberty and property' is recorded in a repository of legal or judicial precedent. Unfortunately, along with the replacement of liberal democracy with modern democracy in 1918, this has resulted in an erosion of human rights and an expansion of unlawful government interference in private and economic life.

The primary difference between a 'liberal' democracy and a 'pure' democracy or 'modern' democracy is this legal restriction of government. In a 'pure' democracy, 51% of the population may vote to enslave the other 49%. Government has the power to collect taxes to transfer wealth to those who support them, creating a kleptocratic system of governance. This is referred to as a 'tyranny of the majority' and inevitably leads to a breakdown in social order and, historically, a shift toward authoritarian government.

The two main forms of liberal democracy are the 'Constitutional Republic' and the 'Constitutional Monarchy'. In both cases, the three branches of government, the 'Executive/Crown', the 'Legislative' and the 'Judicial' are formally separated and all subject to constitutional or charter law. The details of this separation and the limiting mechanisms vary, but the principle remains broadly similar.

Classical Republicanism is very similar to Liberal Democracy. As Stoic philosopher and Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote of 'the idea of a polity administered with regard to the equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed.' While he remained the absolute Emperor of Rome, Aurelius considered a superior form of Republican government in which a Meritocracy governed justly and where the arbitrary rule of a monarch did not exist.

A couple of centuries earlier, as the Roman Republic descended into the chaos that birthed the Roman Empire, the Roman Senator Cicero and Roman Philosopher Varro both wrote that Roman citizens should stop messing around with their fish ponds on their country estates and put their efforts into saving the Republic. Cicero even mocked his contemporaries as 'piscinarii' or 'fish fanciers' for giving their fish ponds higher priority than saving the Republic.

Centuries later, Elizabeth Willing Powel asked Benjamin Franklin, 'Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?'

His reply, 'A Republic, if you can keep it.'

In reality, the US had created a Liberal Democracy, not a Classical Republic, following in the footsteps of the United Kingdom. The UK had created the world's first Constitutional Monarchy in 1688 by coronating William III, Prince of Orange and Stadholder of the Dutch Republic, as King of England. This created a Liberal Democracy which lasted until 1918, when universal suffrage opened the door to pure democracy and the kleptocracy and political corruption that inevitably followed.

The US maintained their Republic until 1868, when the first state adopted universal suffrage. By 1911, California had succumbed to 'modern' democracy and the Republic's days were numbered. That said, institutions like the electoral college remain and there remains an effort to repeal the 17th Amendment to the constitution and return the election of Senators to State Legislatures, removing many of the corrupting incentives to buy off voters using taxpayer funds. The American Republic could be saved if enough men of sound character were willing to put the effort into saving it.

The fate of the rest of the west may well depend on them doing it.

Fast cars, lucrative careers, cell phones, country club memberships, etc have all become the 'fish ponds' of the modern west. Frivolous luxuries occupying the time and energy of western leadership while the foundations of civilization crumble.

Reading list:

'The Two Treatises of Government' - John Locke

'On Liberty' - John Stuart Mill

'Considerations on Representative Government' - John Stuart Mill

'The Constitution of the United States'

'The Great Unravelling, Why Democracy Failed, and How to Fix It.' - Julius Reuchel

Edited: 18 Dec 24