Abstract:
Democracy as a theoretical concept has been in the spotlight
for centuries. In recent years, anti-elitist (so-called populist) public
movements have become increasingly popular. A clear example of
this is illiberalism as a paradigm of liberal democracy.
“I personally prefer a liberal dictatorship than a democratic government
devoid of liberalism,” Hayek said during a visit to Chile by
Pinochet.
Illiberalism was introduced by Gabor Halmai as a critical reaction
to liberalism (Gabor Halmai, 2020).
Representatives of the liberal theory criticize the values of political
liberalism: – Human rights, justice, equality and the principles
of the rule of law. The object of their criticism is liberal theories and
liberal societies. Stephen Holmes notes: non-liberals and anti-liberals are reluctant
to study liberal theories and liberal societies separately from
each others because they believe that liberal societies are the ideal
embodiment of liberal ideas. Accordingly the failure of liberal societies
is automatically caused by the inadequacy of liberal principles.
(S. Holmes, 1993).
Liberalism opposes liberal democracy because, as generally accepted,
there is no democracy without liberalism, and at the same
time, it is impossible for liberal rights to exist without democracy. In
this sense, “illiberal or anti-liberal democracy” does not exist. Those
who consider democracy as a liberal formation also argue that illiberalism
fundamentally contradicts with institutional aspects of basic
democracy associated with constitutionalism.
In his famous work (1989), Fukuyama predicted the “Unequivocal
Victory of Political Liberalism” and the “Universalization of Western
Liberal Democracy as the Ultimate Form of Human Government”
(Fukuyama, 1999), but later the processes developed in a completely
different way.
An interesting statement was made by Orban that “He wants to
turn Hungary into a state that “will take the negative blow that will
follow the recognition that Hungary is not a liberal country by nature”.
He expressed his support to illibelar democracy and noticed
that he also considers Christian democracy to be liberal: “There is
an alternative to liberal democracy, it is called Christian democracy
... let us state with certainty that Christian democracy is not liberal.
Liberal democracy is liberal, while Christian democracy, by its very
nature, is not liberal. It can be said that it is illiberal”. (Viktor Orban
2018).
As it seems there is an ongoing process of fermentation in the
political field. The core values of civilization are in danger. The essential
conditions of human nobility and freedom have already
disappeared in many regions of the world. Even the most precious
achievement of Western man, freedom of thinking and expression is in danger. The expansion of arbitrary power gradually undermines
the position of individuals and voluntary groups. Conceptual gaps
can be diagnosed and corrected if we make the results of the partial
collapse of classical liberalism an intense topic of discussion for
people with distinctive thinking like the Mont Pellerin society.
