This is a fascinating book! Illiberal democracy (democracy without liberty) is spreading worldwide, and imperiling the future of freedom. The democratization process is multi-faceted: political, economic, cultural, what have you. The broad drivers behind it are technological progress, the growth of a wealthy middle class, the fall of alternative economic systems, and the Americanization of popular culture. Gunnar Myrdal predicted the convergence of political attitudes, while von Hayek foretold the fall of socialism and rise of the welfare state. What both philosophical thinkers missed is that the rise in democracy was to be without liberty. The rest of this book explains how and why that happened.
The explanation starts with a short history of liberty. This chapter is pure educational pleasure - for any reader. The road to democracy itself has undulated, yet infrastructural change is unstoppable, and along with it super-structural change. The exception is the Islamic world where the "monarchs are more liberal than societies over which they reign" (p. 120). However, too much of anything is dangerous, and paradoxically too much democracy has killed authority, resulting in illiberal democracy. It is under this new stage that dangers, like international terrorism, now lurk.
The book ends with a forward-looking chapter of the "way out". While the information the last chapter presents is valuable, the conclusions do not appear to follow easily from previous chapters. However, even with that flaw, this is a great book.
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