• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Tuesday, July 5, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Illiberals and Anti-Liberals: Beginning of a ‘Beautiful’ Friendship?

Zsolt Enyedi by Zsolt Enyedi
10/25/19
in Opinion
President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping during dinner at in West Palm Beach, Florida, on April 6, 2017.

President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: Jim Watson, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

At last week’s meeting of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States, the Azeri, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Turkish leaders, joined by the Hungarian leader in observer status, welcomed Uzbekistan as a new member. Despite its name, the common denominator within the Council is not the common language – Hungarian is Finno-Ugric – but the fact that none of them is a liberal democracy.

The terms illiberal and anti-liberal are often used to describe such regimes, without much consideration paid to the terms’ differences. Both adjectives express the fundamental distinction between these political systems and Western-style democracies, but we would understand them better if we distinguished between illiberal and anti-liberal countries.

Difference Illiberalism and Anti-Liberalism

Illiberalism should primarily refer to a form of decision-making that lacks the features of constitutionalism. This is in line with political scientist Fareed Zakaria’s “illiberal democracy” concept, except that only a small portion of illiberal regimes happen to be democratic in the sense of running free and fair elections.

In an illiberal system, the leader aspires to be the father of the nation. The political discourse focuses on concepts such as harmony and spirituality. Such regimes tend to advocate multilateralism in international affairs.

Anti-liberal regimes, on the other hand, are typically freer and more democratic, and their institutional framework contains significant elements of constitutionalism. But such systems are also more polarized than the illiberal ones.

Their leaders use a combative language against both the internal opposition and supra-national actors like the European Union. Most importantly, their propaganda is based on an ideology that explicitly frames modern liberalism as an enemy.

Non-Liberal Leaders

Illiberalism has been represented by leaders such as former President of Uzbek SSR Islam Karimov and Chinese President Xi Jinping, while anti-liberalism has been displayed by Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, and American President Donald Trump.

US President Donald Trump
US President Donald Trump. Photo: Jim Watson, AFP

The former leaders disregard the possibility of a government constrained by horizontal accountability, whereas the latter group denounces the very principle of checks and balances and actively undermines its institutions. The chairman of the Hungarian Parliament, for example, nonchalantly called just a few days ago the idea of checks and balances a mere stupidity.

The more intensive the political competition in a country, the more likely it is that the authoritarian leaders will be anti-liberal, and not illiberal.

Developments

While illiberal regimes – that lack proper mechanisms for the protection of minority rights or juridical independence – have always been around, the appearance of self-confident anti-liberalism that attacks state-neutrality, robust civil society, or foreign policy based on the respect of human rights is relatively new on the global stage.

One further noteworthy phenomenon of the last decade is the convergence and rapprochement between the illiberals and anti-liberals. Vladimir Putin, a typical illiberal leader, increasingly adopts the anti-immigrant discourse of Italy’s Matteo Salvini or France’s Marine Le Pen, classical anti-liberal leaders.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Orban, who have experimented with building illiberal regimes, realized that they could only function as leaders of the anti-liberal camp, not of the whole nation, and changed their rhetoric and actions accordingly.

The way Trump treats the strong men of the East and South betrays a genuine sympathy towards them and the possibility that an alliance with such leaders can be used productively in domestic conflicts with the liberals.

Rifts and Mergers in ‘Unholy Alliance’

There are still many rifts within this new “Unholy Alliance.”

The Polish and the Russian leaders, for example, do not see eye to eye. But there is an ideological and personal bridge being built between governments that have immediately opposing interests.

Poland’s Jaroslaw Kaczynski may not be a friend of Putin, but he is happy to meet Orban, who, on his turn, meets Putin or Erdogan more often than the West European leaders. And the distaste of critical media, NGOs, gay rights, anti-corruption agencies, and any institutional constraint on the sovereign national leaders constitutes a solid common ideological frame that bridges civilizational divides or conflicting economic interests.

Fake News Equals the Enemy of the People!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2019

Whether Trump and Putin have petty common schemes or not, their similar disdain against constitutional limitations, multiculturalism, and universalism provides a rather profound basis for potential collaboration on the world stage.

The original example, the Turkic Council, is a regional project, and as such not particularly relevant for global processes. But it serves as a pertinent illustration of how illiberal and anti-liberal politicians can identify their common interests.

Liberal democracies increasingly face a coalition of potential enemies.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Zsolt Enyedi

Zsolt Enyedi

Professor of Political Science at Central European University, working on party politics and political attitudes. Enyedi was the 2003 recipient of the Rudolf Wildenmann Prize and the 2004 winner of the Bibó Award

Related Posts

US President Donald Trump
Opinion

Owning the Words and the Libs

by Stephen J. Lyons
June 16, 2022
Sergei Besov
Lifestyle

Against Type: Russian Print Artist Makes Posters for Peace

by Staff Writer
June 8, 2022
Officers in Uvalde, Texas, stand outside Robb Elementary School near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims
Opinion

Child Sacrifice Makes a Comeback

by Stephen J. Lyons
June 3, 2022
anti femicide group
Democracy at Risk

Anti-Femicide Group Goes on Trial in Turkey, Faces Risk of Closure

by Staff Writer
June 1, 2022
refugees
World

More Than 100 Million People Forcibly Displaced, UN Says

by Staff Writer
May 23, 2022
Vladimir Putin
Business

Russia Says Economy Grew 3.5 Percent in First Quarter

by Staff Writer
May 18, 2022
Next Post
President of Argentina Mauricio Macri

Argentina's Macri Ousted Amid Recession, Rising Poverty

Chile President Lifts State Of Emergency, But Protests Continue

Chile President Lifts State Of Emergency, But Protests Continue

Recommended

Shireen Abu Akleh

US Says Al Jazeera Journalist Likely Shot by Israel But Not Intentionally

July 4, 2022
Google logo

Google to Pay $90 Mn in Settlement With App Developers

July 1, 2022
Mexico murdered journalists

Journalist Murdered in Mexico, 12th This Year

June 29, 2022
Spain migrants

Spain Prosecutor Opens Probe Into Melilla Migrant Deaths

June 28, 2022
Afghan refugees

Pakistani Migrants in Afghanistan Caught in Quake No-Man’s Land

June 27, 2022
Joe Biden climate summit

Biden Calls Clean Energy Matter of National Security in Face of Russia War

June 17, 2022

Opinion

US President Donald Trump

Owning the Words and the Libs

June 16, 2022
Officers in Uvalde, Texas, stand outside Robb Elementary School near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims

Child Sacrifice Makes a Comeback

June 3, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Ukraine war

The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis and the Hierarchies of Western Compassion

April 20, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post