Illiberalism – Here and there

Post-liberal, post-democratic and authoritarian. Is that America’s future?

21 December 2022 Mike Scrafton Global

A group with the potential to capture the state appears to be forming in the US – coalescing around a set of illiberal and authoritarian ideas. Australian observers, commentators, and policy-makers need to watch this movement closely.

The persistence of American authoritarianism should worry Australia

28 February 2021 Mike Scrafton Australian focus, By Mike Scrafton

Has an enduring predisposition to authoritarianism been activated in the US that will continue to destabilise its domestic politics? If so, the US could become an unreliable ally. Should Australia be imagining a post-alliance future?

An American theocracy: the advance of Christian nationalism

26 January 2021 Mike Scrafton By Mike Scrafton, Democracy and governance, Global

Ironically, Christian nationalist opposition to religious liberty has plagued American democracy since before the Revolution, and a strong authoritarian strain still runs through American religious thinking. The Trump Administration provided disturbing evidence of how Christian nationalists have penetrated key political institutions, with eclipse of constitutional liberal democracy by a competing virtual theocracy as their aim.

Is Trump’s 1776 Commission Report an extremist manifesto?

25 January 2021 Mike Scrafton By Mike Scrafton, Democracy and governance, Global

Trump’s 1776 Commission Report, released on 18 January 2021, puts forward ideas that are designed to give shape and logic to the notions of extremists. It is a dangerous document that provides the façade of a coherent political philosophy to hide, and to disguise, the rising illiberalism in America. The final conclusion is chilling, comparing the contemporary situation in America with previous crises that were resolved by violence and insurrection.

Liberal democracy: the prognosis post-COVID-19

3 April 2020 Mike Scrafton By Mike Scrafton, Global

Gloomy assessments of the status and prospects for liberal democracy are increasingly common, reflected in numerous surveys and a range of research which variously blames neoliberalism, globalisation, capitalism, media and the failure of democratic institutions. Governments’ responses to the Covid-19 pandemic seem likely to at best aggravate the current trend and at worst accelerate it. The prognosis for liberal democracy post-Covid-19 is not auspicious.

Populism, Nationalism and Illiberalism – a challenge for democracy and civil society

1 April 2020 Online editor Analysis and comment

LIberal aspects of democracy, in particular civil liberties and the rule of law, are essential to a democratic system worthy of this name. Majority decisions taken in illiberal contexts are not a sufficient basis for political action: there is no such thing as an “illiberal democracy”.