Liberal Democracy, Past and Future
Citing the examples of Trump, Brexit and Modi, Santosh Desai fears that the very nature of democracy world over is changing: “A new grammar of democracy has begun rooted not on the lofty ideals of how humanity should aspire to be, but on what it might really be deep down. The fears and hopes that are being funneled through the political process today come from a place of anxiety and insecurity.” But what exactly is this older form of democracy, the one called “liberal democracy”? Yuval Noah Harari, in his book Homo Deus , explains both its history and values. Once upon a time, people believed (and feared) that “if humans stopped believing in a great cosmic plan, all law and order would vanish”. So what happened once God was dead, as Nietzsche famously put it? Who or what stepped in to fill the moral void? The answer: the (then) new creed of humanism. It is best described, says Harari, by these lines by Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “Listen to yourself, follow your heart, be tru...