Liberal democracies put to the test

A great many writers, people who know what they're talking about, have warned that liberal democracy is more significantly threatened today than at any time in the recent past. That's not just because of the election of Donald Trump, but also the Brexit vote in Great Britain, and widespread support for nationalist, authoritarian and exclusionist regimes in Hungary, Poland and elsewhere.

[Lessons on democracy from the Brexit vote]

Though currently small minorities, Marine Le Pen's National Front in France and the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany party enjoy more broad support than analysts have imagined possible.

Citizens in Turkey now live under a regime determined to eliminate dissent and punish criticism, and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has directed government enforcement squads to eradicate those who dare to challenge his unpredictable, personal rule. In Russia, the personal fiat of Vladimir Putin matches the tyranny of the oligarchy he nurtures.

What should we understand by "liberal democracy?" Because conservative politicians and spokespersons in this country have deliberately conflated the understanding of the term by labeling any opposition policy they don't like as "liberalism," and because the general populace no longer knows much history — just what's under attack and what's really at stake is not well appreciated.

Whether they know it or not, most Americans, whether they think of themselves as conservatives or liberals or independents, actually believe in and support liberal democracy. It's a collection of propositions about the relationship between a people and their government that has long characterized America, and more recently, much of Europe.

It arose in the early 19th century as an alternative to despotism, much of which was imposed by absolute monarchs, as well as to oligarchic rule of usurious elites who captured their nation's wealth, often through control of the government. It was seen also as an alternative to the indiscriminate violence and terror associated with revolution.

In place of these, liberal democracy advanced a belief in open societies, open economies, transparent government, and above all, the rule of law, all of which promoted widespread individual prosperity and universal freedoms protected by democratically formed constitutions, which curtailed abuse of people by the state and those associated with it.

Virtually all Americans know these ideas, if only in inchoate form, mostly from their basic education. And all but the ruthless and most rapacious among us support them.

But few seem to understand that the "liberal" in their definition refers to the freedom of the individual, freedom from inequality and repression, from abuse and terror.

The word liberal comes from the Latin "liber," meaning "to free."  In his famous "four freedoms" speech to Congress on Jan. 6, 1941, his State of the Union address that year, Franklin Roosevelt identified a state of ease which all people, everywhere, should enjoy, and which it was the goal of the United States to promote: Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.

In this country, the U.S. Constitution protects the first two, but the latter two go quite beyond to even more fundamental human rights. Freedom from want means economic security, a living wage in a safe and reliable context. Freedom from fear means the absence of the terror brought by national armaments, which today translates into the nuclear terror that underlies international relations.

[Trump's victory is part of a worldwide populist movement]

Most Americans enjoy the first three of these freedoms, and also the broader benefits conveyed by an open society that endorses open economies and transparent government and respects the environment. But those called liberals generally believe these freedoms are less perfectly realized than can and should be tolerated, and look to government, the only force with sufficient breadth and depth to enforce them.

Those called conservatives believe the reliance on government to guarantee these freedoms has, in fact, intolerably diminished the freedom of individuals and institutions.

Contrary to the conservative conviction that government has curtailed freedom in this country, most Americans enjoy more and greater freedom than citizens of any other nation.

The anxiety of many Americans today, conservative and liberal, is that a Trump presidency will diminish freedom by reducing access to it, and more fundamentally, will erode respect for the rule of law. In America, these seem the most potent, current threats to liberal democracy.