The New Caesars, Part II

The Demos, the Ochlos, and the People's Will

In Part I, I introduced the term New Caesarism—the term I favor for the populist political trend that’s shaping this century. Today we’ll look at the ideology in more detail.

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Language and politics

Particularly among Americans, the word “liberal” has evolved in a peculiar way: It is now, mostly, a synonym for “left-wing.” This transformation leaves Americans without the vocabulary to describe the ideas upon which their country was founded. The words “classical liberal” sometimes serve as a synonym for “liberal,” but the phrase is neither widely understood nor precise. Further confusing matters, the word “democracy” has come to be used as a synonym for “liberal democracy,” as if the fact of elections were sufficient to create a liberal regime.

It isn’t.

“Democracy” is a system of governance in which power is vested in the people and exercised by them through a system of representation involving elections. It does not entail liberal democracy. Not only is liberalism distinct from democracy, it’s often in tension with it.

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An extremely abbreviated history of liberal democracy