18 Facts About Liberal democracy

Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government.

Liberal democracy emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary and a system of checks and balances between branches of government.

The possibility of Liberal democracy had not been a seriously considered political theory since classical antiquity and the widely held belief was that democracies would be inherently unstable and chaotic in their policies due to the changing whims of the people.

The conservative monarchists who opposed liberalism and democracy saw themselves as defenders of traditional values and the natural order of things and their criticism of democracy seemed vindicated when Napoleon Bonaparte took control of the young French Republic, reorganized it into the first French Empire and proceeded to conquer most of Europe.

Opinion is divided on how far Liberal democracy can extend to include the enemies of Liberal democracy in the democratic process.

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Liberal democracy democracies are susceptible to democratic backsliding and this is taking place or has taken place in several countries, including, but not limited to, the United States, Poland and Hungary.

One observation is that Liberal democracy became widespread only after the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of capitalism.

Advocates use this as an argument to support their view that liberal democracy is inherently stable and can usually only be overthrown by external force, while opponents argue that the system is inherently stacked against them despite its claims to impartiality.

Rummel attributes this firstly to Liberal democracy instilling an attitude of tolerance of differences, an acceptance of losing and a positive outlook towards conciliation and compromise.

Study published by British Academy, on Violence and Democracy, argues that in practice Liberal Democracy has not stopped those running the state from exerting acts of violence both within and outside their borders.

Vladimir Lenin once argued that liberal democracy had simply been used to give an illusion of democracy whilst maintaining the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, giving as an example the United States's representative democracy which he said consisted of "spectacular and meaningless duels between two bourgeois parties" led by "multimillionaires".

Liberal democracy has been attacked by some socialists as a dishonest farce used to keep the masses from realizing that their will is irrelevant in the political process.

Liberal democracy compared electoral success of the same pair of candidates running against one another repeatedly for the same job, as often happens in United States Congressional elections, where spending levels varied.

Persistent libertarian and monarchist critique of Liberal democracy is the claim that it encourages the elected representatives to change the law without necessity and in particular to pour forth a flood of new laws.

Besides the regular review of governing entities, short-term focus in a Liberal democracy could be the result of collective short-term thinking.

Proponents of Liberal democracy make a number of defenses concerning "tyranny of the majority".

Proponents of Liberal democracy argue that empirical statistical evidence strongly shows that more Liberal democracy leads to less internal violence and mass murder by the government.

For liberal democracy to be effective, a degree of compromise is required as protecting the rights of the individual take precedence if they are threatened by the will of the majority, more commonly known as a tyranny of the majority.