What is Liberal Democracy?

A nation-state may be a democracy without being a liberal democracy. For exampla, Iran is a democracy but it is not a liberal democracy. Iran has regular election that is also largely free and fair. So it is fair to call Iran's political system a democracy. But one would hardly call Iran a liberal democracy. This is because the value system in the Constitution does not demonstrate certain features. But what are those features that would make a nation-state a liberal democracy? There are two points that are universally regarded as key features of a liberal democracy. 

First, whether one follows a presidential system or a parliamentary system, the power to choose the chief executive must rest with the citizens. This is to be done through election, where the voting right is given to every adult member of the state. Holding free and fair election, therefore, is a basic condition to be a liberal democracy. (This is a feature that Iran also has.)

Second, the power of the government over the lives of the citizens must be limited. Now this is rather complicated because one may ask how limited should the power of the government be. Here, thinkers have differences of opinion. Some voice for a very limited role of the government while certain other  voice for little more role of the government. For example, Locke writes about the role of the government in protecting our life, liberty and property. Now, protecting primary goods such as these are agreeable to everyone. But can't government protect more than these three items of primary goods?  So, some other may say that they want the government to protect their language too, or/and endangered flora & fauna, or/and way of family structure and so on. So, they will say that the power of the government should not be so limited. But once we add other elements, things get complicated. Some group may further push for government's regulation of market system, implementation of affirmation action policy, blacklisting of certain religious groups and so on. If government begins to introduce laws or formulate policies to accommodate these demands, it risks sliding into an illiberal democracy. But many democracies do not accommodate all these demands; they accommodate only a few of these demands and that's how they retain their status of being a liberal democracy. 

It is worth noting few points in underscoring this feature. 

a) Government must give freedom of conscience to the citizens. This is translated into saying give religious freedom to the citizens. This is also related to liberty that Locke raised. States like Pakistan finds itself on the illiberal side because of privileging Islam which subsequently renders followers of other religion as second class citizens. For example, its blasphemy law does not sit squarely with how a liberal democracy must be like. This blasphemy law allows religious minorities who violated the law to be penalised, sometimes with a very severe form of punishment. This feature is different from established religion that we find in certain western countries. Having an established religion does not result in punishing religious minorities like blasphemy law allows. 

b) Government must ensure freedom of expression (FOE). It should not curtail citizens from criticizing the government, other people's views etc. This freedom cannot entail protecting of hate speech, lies etc. though. Free speech does have boundary. FOE ensures that ideas can be expressed through books, movies, newspaper, TVs, social media etc. and may include defense, proposal, or critique of ideas, whether the idea is scientific, religious, moral, social etc. 

c) As people travel more and more, their way of life and ideas travel with them. So today many societies are becoming cosmopolitan. Different food habits, religions, traditions, languages, aspirations etc. are being expressed and witnessed in the same city. X may not like Y eating beef or Z eating pork. L may not like M getting married to someone of the same sex. But all these people live in the same city. So how should they live together?  This is the challenge of a modern state. In the past not many people travelled. Even if people travelled, if the king of the land said "this is the way of life", immigrants do not have much choice. But today with kings and queens gone or rendered powerless, and many more people have criss-crossed continents, the challenge has become acute.  We may also imagine this scenario. French government may say "this is our way of life" and immigrants may be morally obligated to follow suit. If immigrants refuse, they may be told why they came to this land in the first place. But if there is a difference of opinion within the white French, say, because one group of people have become more educated, open minded, learnt about other things through TV/Internet etc. while a section of the people remained static in their thinking, whose aspirations should the government honour? Or, in the case of India, how must the government accommodate the wishes and aspirations of North east people vis-a-vis North India or the aspirations of Christians vis-a-vis Hindus or the aspirations of Dalits vis-a-vis Brahmins and so on? There is no easy answer. However, liberal democracy offers people FOE to debate and exchange ideas. Liberal democracy has problematic features in accommodating the ways of life of different people; at the same time, without being a liberal democracy, it is difficult to accommodate and resolve differences in our ways of life.