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  • Writer's pictureShehzeen ALAM
    • Jan 4, 2023
    • 2 min read

Is the Classical Western Style Liberal Democracies Still Relevant?

By: Anahita Biswas


In the past democracy has been looked at as the most successful type of governance but in today’s society, more people are supporting right-wing politicians/parties such as Bolsonaro in Brazil, Erdogan in Turkey, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, and Narendra Modi in India to name a few. All these politicians have conservative and reactionary views. So what makes them so popular?


Liberal democracy is a type of democracy that in a way separates the power within the government to maintain a balance in the system. This is normally portrayed through representative democracy where eligible citizens of the country vote for a person or a party to represent their views rather than directly voting on policies and laws.


Europe is becoming increasingly more right-wing, an example of this is that they are stills supporting the expansion of the welfare state by giving access to millions to receive government benefits but at the same time they are in turn rejecting all undocumented immigrants from receiving the same treatment. Today with increasing amounts of unrest in the world and mass displacement of people from their homes, it isn’t surprising that many people are choosing to move towards a more right-wing society. A big driving factor for voters nowadays is what the representatives' views are on migration and people... Since the recession, right-wing populist movements such as the National Rally in France, The league in Italy, The party of Freedom, the Forum for Democracy in the Netherlands, the Independence Party, and the Brexit Party in the UK have grown in popularity.

Between 2015-2020 we saw an increase in right-wing populists in the EU. Although this subsided due to Covid between 2020-2022, it is on the rise again. In Hungary Orban followed up his 2018 victory and in Sweden, they followed with their right-wing party doubling their support amongst young voters since the last election whilst Belgium's top 2 parties are extreme right-wing populists.


You may be asking how supporting more right-wing politicians affects the world today. As stated before with the increase of displacement around the world if countries start to move towards a more nationalist and right-wing mentality we will see increasing amounts of unrest and issues in the world. Many of the countries that are experiencing more refugees coming in are European countries so if they move towards a more right-wing view then that could really affect everyone around the world.


So what has led to this change in Europe and how might this affect the liberal democratic systems around the world? Is this a trend that will remain only in Europe or will it soon become the new normal all over the world?


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