Review: The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Zakaria builds an analytical approach to the viability of democracy as government elected by the majority of its people and often a constitutional liberalism codifying the rule of law, separation of powers, institutional check and balances, and most importantly individual rights around property, contracts, etc. This analysis suggests a sweet spot around GDP, a lack of a natural resource-based economy (full duplex integration with the global economy), and other basic elements such as a healthy middle class. You cannot have a true, liberal democracy without the rule of law. Examples of “illiberal” democracies are democratically elected autocrats as have happened in Egypt, Venezuela, etc.

This opus begins with a The History of Human Liberty from when first in Rome in created the rule of law. Actually, Zakaria finds Rome more important to the growth of democracy as know it than Greece. As the scholarly analysis of the lifespan of democracy and what are its fertile grounds proceeds, it becomes most thought provoking and surprising toward the end with a Too Much Democracy chapter.

Zakaria speaks to the general public discontent with the democratization of political process in the U.S. such as how the most democratic branch, Congress, is loathed, while non-democratic parts like the military and Supreme Court are. He speaks to how American (all?) democracy unchecked tends to commercialize and thus deplete the effectiveness of democracy leading to rampant referendum hijacking, constant fund-raising, and—most disconcerting—an absence of priority of public service by leading citizens.

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