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Beyond Trending: What is ‘illiberal’ democracy?
Although the implications of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s electoral defeat remain to be seen, experts view it as a serious setback for the “illiberal” model of democracy. What is “Illiberal” democracy?
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (Left) and Péter Magyar (right) during their respective election rally in Budapest. (Credits: AP Photo/ Facebook; Péter Magyar)
Europe’s far right, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party suffered a landslide-loss in parliamentary elections after 16 years of continuous rule. Orbán’s center-right opponent, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar, won 136 seats of the 199-member Hungarian Parliament.
Although the implications of Orban’s loss remain to be seen, experts like Gulshan Sachdeva view it as a serious setback for the “illiberal” model of democracy that had been gaining ground across several European countries in recent years. But what is “illiberal” democracy? A brief explanation of liberal democracy will help us understand this.
Liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is a system of government characterised by the rule of law, universal suffrage, and the protection of civil rights. Marc F. Plattner, the founding coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, notes that while democracy is an answer to the question of who rules, liberalism describes the limits to rulers’ power once they are in office.
Since liberal democracy emphasises freedom and equality for all individuals, these limits, usually defined in a written constitution, seek to protect individuals’ rights and demand the rule of law, says Plattner, adding that hence, “constitutional democracy” sometimes serves as an alternative term for liberal democracy.
However, it is interesting to note that democracy and liberalism are not inseparably linked. Larry Diamond, a leading scholar of democracy, underlines that “historically, liberty – secured through constitutional, limited government and a rule of law – came about before democracy.”
While some liberal societies were not governed democratically, there were premodern democracies that were not necessarily liberal. The fact that electoral democracy and liberalism do not necessarily go together is central to debates on the idea of “illiberal” democracy, in which Viktor Orbán occupies centre stage.
Illiberal democracy
The term “illiberal democracy” was first introduced by Fareed Zakaria in an article titled “The Rise of Illiberal Democracy”, published in Foreign Affairs in 1997. Zakaria used the term to describe the spread of democracy during the mid-1970s in countries that completely lacked a liberal tradition.
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He argued that the mere introduction of elections does not qualify such countries to be called genuine liberal democracies. Rather, it undermined the possibility of these countries evolving into a liberal democracy. He argued that the path through “liberal autocracy” might be a surer route than the path through illiberal democracy for reaching the ultimate goal of liberal democracy.
Nevertheless, following the triumph of the Fidesz party in Hungary in 2010, Orbán expressed his unequivocal support for the idea of illiberal democracy by saying that “there is an alternative to liberal democracy: it is called Christian democracy”…, “which is, by definition, not liberal: it is, if you like, illiberal”, noted Plattner.
Implications of Orban’s defeat
Orban also drew distinctions between liberal democracy and Christian democracy by underlining that the former supports multiculturalism, immigration, and adaptable family law, while the latter prioritises Christian culture and family model, and does not support immigration.
Although Orbán’s defeat in the recent elections ignited debates about its implications for the “illiberal” democracy in Hungary under the aegis of the centre-right Tisza party, the implications remain to be seen.
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But Plattner’s observation, he made years ago, appears relevant in this context, when he said that the threat to liberal democracy lies in the possibility that “mainstream center-right parties will be captured by tendencies that are indifferent or even hostile to liberal democracy.”
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