Many Parts of the "Free World" May Be Transitioning Toward a More Illiberal and Authoritarian Regime

The momentous changes we have seen in the constitutional orders of Western nations since the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the world last year do not bode well for the future of free and open societies. The overwhelming tendency – sadly, with only a handful of exceptions – has been to embrace an ever more illiberal and authoritarian model of governance, purportedly to protect citizens from Covid-19.

One of the central defining principles of Western democratic societies is the notion that social order can be constructed and maintained through free and uncoerced cooperation among equal citizens, irrespective of ethnicity, ideology, tribe, or religion.

However, only a small minority of societies have managed to realize this ideal in human history, and only for a relatively short time. Furthermore, two world wars and the rapid advance of fascist and national socialist rule in the early 20th century have taught us that constitutional democracy may be rapidly destabilised and even destroyed…