Fareed Zakaria article The Rise of the Illiberal Democracy, Civil Research Paper

Fareed Zakaria article The Rise of the Illiberal Democracy, Civil Rights, and Women Suffrage Movements - Research Paper Example Democracy is something much broader and holistic in its scope. It is a model of governance in which no individual, group or institution is endowed with absolute power so that it may ignore the aspirations expressed as seemingly disparate and conflicting opinions. Democracy is about liberty, separation of powers and assimilation and recognition of diverse opinions. Liberalism according to Zakaria is primarily an antithesis of absolutism in the political, civil and legal sphere (Zakaria 24: Online). Liberalism is a political doctrine that not only tolerates dissent and political, religious and ethnic pluralism, but goes a step ahead to recognize the opinion of the minorities and conflicting opinions, and extends them a fair opportunity and environment to have a say in the socio-political life of a nation. It is a political doctrine that gives every individual and group the access to some inalienable rights like the right to expression, assembly, religion and property. Illiberalism, sim ply speaking, is a way of politics, which curtails on the essential and fundamental rights of some or all segments of a society that includes the quintessential liberties like the freedom of speech, property, religion and assembly. (Zakaria 27: Online) Liberalism is the actual rule of the people, without any exception, not an arrangement in which an individual or a party rules by proxy and justifies the annihilation of civil liberties in the name of popular support and validation. For instance, Singapore is a liberal democracy in the sense that tough it offers limited political choices to its citizens; it does recognize and support their essentially human aspirations and rights, irrespective of their ethnic background or religion (Zakaria 25: Online). Modern Russia is actually an illiberal democracy in which the ruling party has usurped and appropriated political authority both horizontally and vertically, and has severely curtailed the civil and political rights such as the right t o speech, expression, assembly, and dissent (Zakaria 28: Online). In the context of the American constitution, liberalism certainly came first, followed by democracy (Zakaria 29: Online). Fear of absolute power and authority was the guiding spirit behind the architecture of the American constitution. That is why the American constitution provided for a clear cut division of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. It was unlike the British polity where the ministers are also a member of the House of Commons and the powers of the executive, the legislature and the judiciary tends to overlap or diffuse. In America the secretaries of state and the other government officials are not the members of the Congress. This arrangement negated the concentration of power in any one pillar of the American democracy. Civil Rights Movement The American civil rights movement that unfolded in the period 1955-1968 and aimed at the abolition of racial discrimination in the Ameri can socio-political setup and restoring the voting rights for the African Americans in the Southern States is an apt example of the liberal strains woven in the American democracy (Dierenfield 17). The very Declaration of Independence that can be considered the bedrock of the American constitution states that human beings have â€Å"certain inalienable rights†