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Liberalism and Democracy: Can't Have One Without the Other Author(S): Marc F Liberalism and Democracy: Can't Have One without the Other Author(s): Marc F. Plattner Reviewed work(s): Source: Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 2 (Mar. - Apr., 1998), pp. 171-180 Published by: Council on Foreign Relations Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20048858 . Accessed: 19/10/2012 08:58 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Council on Foreign Relations is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Foreign Affairs. http://www.jstor.org Response and Liberalism Democracy Can't Have One Without the Other Marc F. Plattner Less than a as an quarter-century ago, demo changed dramatically, astonishing to a cracy appeared be confined, with few number of autocratic regimes around the to North America andWestern world from were exceptions, fell power. They generally These nations had in at to Europe. advanced succeeded by regimes that least aspired dustrial sizable middle be rise to economies, democratic, giving the phenome and rates?factors non P. classes, high literacy that Samuel Huntington termed as that many political scientists regarded the "third wave" of democratization. for over a prerequisites successful democracy. Today, well hundred countries, in were home not to free and continent in the can They only every world, plausibly to competitive multiparty elections but also claim have freely elected governments. to the rule of law and the of Outside of few of protection Africa, these aspiring individual liberties. In were new short, they democracies have suffered outright what had come to be called reversions to authoritarianism. But many, "liberal democracies." even among those that hold unambigu rest In the of the world, by contrast, ously free and fair elections, fall short of most countries were neither liberal nor providing the protection of individual were a democratic. They ruled by variety liberties and adherence to the rule of law of in dictatorships?military, single-party, commonly found the long-established revolutionary, Marxist-Leninist?that democracies. As Larry Diamond has put new are rejected free, multiparty elections (in prac it, many of the regimes "electoral if not in not tice, always principle). By the democracies" but "liberal democracies." this situation early 1990s, however, had Citing Diamond's distinction, Huntington Marc F. Plattner is Co-Editor o? tht Journal of Democracy, and Co Director of the International Forum for Democratic Studies. [171] Marc F. Plattner the has argued that the introduction of elec mechanism by which people exercise tions in non-Western societies may often their rule. Today it is further presumed to lead victory by antiliberal forces. And that democracy implies virtually universal Fareed Zakaria has contended that the adult suffrage and eligibility to run for of around the world office. are as promotion elections Elections, then, regarded the or has been responsible for "the rise of illiberal embodying popular majoritarian of liberal democracy"?that is, of freely elected gov aspect contemporary democracy. ernments to that fail safeguard basic liber The word "liberal" in the phrase liberal not to matter ties. "Constitutional liberalism," Zakaria democracy refers the of to the matter of how that argues, "is theoretically different and his who rules but rule is exercised. Above it that torically distinct from democracy_ all, implies two is limited in its Today the strands of liberal demo government powers and cracy, interwoven in theWestern political itsmodes of acting. It is limited first by are rest a fabric, coming apart in the of the the rule of law, and especially by funda mental or world. Democracy is flourishing; consti law constitution, but ultimately tutional liberalism is not." Drawing upon it is limited by the rights of the individual. or this distinction, Zakaria recommends that The idea of natural inalienable rights, not increase which are most called Western policymakers only today commonly their efforts to foster constitutional liberal "human rights," originated with liberalism. ism but diminish their support for elec The primacy of individual rights means autocra tions, and suggests that "liberal that the protection of the private sphere, are to illiberal democracies. with the and of cies" preferable along plurality diversity ends that people seek in their pursuit of DECONSTRUCTING DEMOCRACY a a happiness, is key element of liberal The basic distinction made by all these political order. and liberalism authors is both valid and important. Lib The fact that democracy most are eral democracy?which iswhat not inseparably linked is proven by the mean of historical existence both of nonliberal people today when they speak an and of liberal nondemocracies. democracy?is indeed interweaving democracies of two different elements, one democratic The democracies of the ancient world, a sense were in stricter and the other liberal. As although their citizens incomparably the more involved in themselves its etymological derivation suggests, governing most we are not basic meaning of the word "democ than today, did provide freedom of or of racy" is the rule of the people. As the speech religion, protection pri or rule of the many, it is distinguished from vate property, constitutional govern of one aristo ment. On the other the monarchy (the rule person), side, birthplace cracy (the rule of the best), and oligarchy of liberalism, modern England, retained (the rule of the few). In the modern a highly restricted franchise well into the world, where the sheer size of states has nineteenth century. As Zakaria points direct offers the classic rendered impossible the democracy out, England example once some ancient of democratization a extension practiced by republics, by gradual of well after the essential institu the election of legislative representatives suffrage is the chief tions of constitutional liberalism were and other public officials FOREIGN AFFAIRS [172] Volume77No.2 Liberalism and Democracy in In our own Zakaria the of the this will already place. time, authority government; offers Hong Kong under British colonial shall be expressed in periodic and genuine as an a of lib rule example of flourishing elections which shall be by universal and secret eralism in the absence of democracy. equal suffrage and shall be held by vote or by equivalent free voting proce ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL as a dures." One may regard this formal the or even definitional link between Although "unpacking" component merely it elements of modern liberal democracy is liberalism and electoral democracy, but a to a more crucial first step toward comprehending points profound kinship. For at source its character, overstating the disjunction the political doctrine the can a between liberalism and democracy of liberalism also contains deeply egali to new tarian and dimension. This easily lead misunderstanding. majoritarian While many new electoral democracies is the doctrine that all legitimate political fall short of liberalism, on the whole, power is derived from the consent of are over are nature not countries that hold free elections individuals, who by only more whelmingly liberal than those that free but equal. In the opening pages of his Second Treatise do not, and countries that protect civil lib of Government^ John are more to states men are in "a erties overwhelmingly likely Locke that naturally not. state "a state hold free elections than those that do of perfect freedom," which is not an It is the also of wherein all the This is simply accident. equality, power no one result of powerful intrinsic links between and jurisdiction is reciprocal, a more electoral democracy and liberal order. having than another: there being are more Some of these links immediately ap nothing evident, than that Creatures same parent. Starting from the democratic side, of the species and rank promiscu seem to to same elections would require the guaran ously born all the advantages of tee of certain civil liberties?the freedoms Nature, and the use of the same faculties, one of speech, association, and assembly?if should be equal amongst another are to or they be genuinely free and fair. Thus without Subordination Subjection." even is no man a minimalist definitions of democracy The essential point that has offered by political scientists usually include natural claim to rule over another, and its a must clear is that the rule of man over stipulation that such liberties be corollary to extent man can on maintained at least the necessary be justified only the basis of to a or make possible open electoral competi mutual agreement "compact." tion. Ifwe begin insteadwith the human Now it is true that neither Locke nor rightsmandated by the liberal tradition, his immediate successors concluded from are to this was these generally held today include that democracy the only legitimate some to kind of right electoral participa form of government. For while they held tion. Thus Article 21 of the U.N. Univer that the consent of all is essential to the states: a sal Declaration of Human Rights original compact that forms political to "Everyone has the right take part in the community, they also contended that the or to government of his country, direcdy political community is free decide ... to through freely chosen representatives where it chooses bestow legislative a an The will of the people shall be the basis of power?whether it is in democracy, FOREIGN AFFAIRS March/April i998 i^-73] Marc F. Plattner a or a as itwas in not in oligarchy, monarchy, mix, any share the latter, and the total the and Commons exclusion among King, Lords, of the representatives of the people not from the administration in England.
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