What tensions exist within Liberal Democracy?

Liberal democracy is defined as a democratic system of government in which individual rights and freedoms are officially recognized and protected, and the exercise of political power is limited by the rule of law. Whilst most people today see libralism and democracy as virtually synonymous, if we dig deeper we can see clear tensions between the two. I normally refer to three major tensions which forms a nice essay plan. Firstly, liberalism contradicts democracy due to democracy’s inherently collectivist nature. Liberalism is centred on the primacy of the individual and that the state should not be able to intervene in the affairs of men. As Mill says ‘individuals are not accountable to society for behaviour and actions that affect only them’. Therefore democracy is dangerous as it is seen as a form of collectivism as it readily sacrifices individual rights to majority wishes. This has been referred to as the ‘tyranny of the majority’ by Tocqueville and endangers what Locke described as the ‘cares of men’s’ souls’. Secondly, conflict occurs over tolerance - a key component of liberalism as shown by Mill in his statement ‘Only within a free market of ideas will the truth emerge’. This shows that toleration is beneficial to society in terms of human progress as well as an important pillar in guaranteeing individualism – the right of others to say and belief in what they want. This shows that democracy is endangers societal progress through suppressing the ‘fruit of diversity into ‘dull conformism’’ (Mill) Gasset puts this view to extreme claiming the ‘Arrival of mass democracy has led to the overthrow of civilized society and moral order paving way for authoritarian rulers to come to power appealing to base interests of masses’. The third major conflict between liberalism and democracy is the democratic pressure for increased economic intervention which undermines the fragile balance of the market economy. This belief is rooted in the economist Wager and his theory that within democracies people will tend to vote for welfare and social reform to make their standard of living better. This occurs due to the democratic focus on popular participation. Economic liberalism is rooted in the belief of egotistical individuals – that individuals are utility maximisers and thus should make the greatest number of economic decisions as possible. As such the market should operate in the interests of the people and the price mechanism will ration welfare in order to maximise utility to society. Government intervention only deprives individuals of utility and freedom and reduces welfare of society. Therefore economic liberals are wary of democracy as it encourages the state to have a larger role than simply a ‘night watchman’.