Kingston Philosophy Café

Kieran Quill will a discussion on "Is liberal democracy obsolete?"

-   prompted by Pres. Putin’s interview with the FT today, at the G20 in Tokyo (and various other current developments such as Hong Kong, the EU’s various, possibly increasing, difficulties).

Putin’s observation was, apparently "So, the liberal idea has become obsolete. It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population"

For what it’s worth, the Wiki entry starts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy):

Liberal democracy is a liberal political ideology and a form of government in which representative democracy operates under the principles of classical liberalism. Also called Western democracy, it is characterised by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into different branches of government, the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society, a market economy with private property and the equal protection of human rights, civil rights, civil liberties and political freedoms for all people. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution, either formally written or uncodified, to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract. After a period of sustained expansion throughout the 20th century, liberal democracy became the predominant political system in the world.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives this for Democracy as such: Definition of democracy

1a : government by the people

especially : rule of the majority

b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections