I was on study leave in late 1989 when the Soviet satellite states in eastern Europe fell like dominoes, so I had the opportunity to follow events closely. I was amazed at the speed of the great unravelling. Within two years the USSR disintegrated. The liberal democracies had triumphed in the Cold War.

The euphoria in the West was immense. To many observers liberal democracy was destined to become the dominant form of government in the world, albeit with significant exceptions. Francis Fukuyama’s claim that the worldwide triumph of liberal democracy would mean “the end of history” seemed to capture this optimism. The world looked safe for democracy.

The euphoria has long since evaporated and it seems that we are less secure than at the peak of the Cold War. Hunger for liberal democracy has waned and even cooled dramatically. There is a crisis of confidence in liberal democracy and it is having a strong impact upon the democracies worldwide.[1]Mounk describes this as democracy “deconsolidating.”[2]He traces the origins of this deconsolidation to social media, economic stagnation and questions of identity.[3]

Mounk describes the seriousness of the current malaise in liberal democracies,

Each of these problems [media, stagnation and identity] points the way to an urgent and daunting challenge. Meeting any of these challenges is going to be extremely difficult. Meeting all three at once may turn out to be impossible. And yet, we have to try, for the fate of liberal democracy may depend on it.[4]

History reveals that there is nothing inevitable about the survival or ultimate triumph of liberal democracy. In fact, the Biblical book of Revelation actually predicts its dismantling in Chapter 13:11-18, where minority religious rights are extinguished in the final crisis at the end of human history. I discuss this crisis at some length in Chapter 5 of It’s Sunday in America.

A democracy is no guarantee of the protection of minority rights. Only a liberal democracy based upon constitutional protections works to do this. Witness the oppression and persecution routinely meted out to religious minorities in autocracies or theocracies.

The solution is not to allow liberal democracies, based upon the rule of law, and enjoining the protection of human rights, to “deconsolidate” to the point that constitutional norms and democratic institutions no longer function to protect minorities and to preserve freedoms. The democratic project can unravel swiftly, as revealed in the rise and rapid fall of the Weimar Republic in pre-war Germany. The current decline in commitment to liberal democracy suggests that it may already be too advanced to turn around. The solution may now be out of our reach.

This is not good news for religious freedom. This should focus our attention on the future and cause us to reflect on what is most important about our constitutionally protected democratic freedoms and what life would be like without them. Recently I read Anna Funder’s Stasiland, which recalls what life was like in the German Democratic Republic, 1949-1989. These amazing stories tell of the impact of tyranny upon victims and perpetrators alike. The loss of human flourishing and human potential, in addition to maimed or extinguished lives, speaks to the overwhelming value of constitutional democracy.

Democratic deconsolidation is therefore full of menace when seen in conjunction with the other trends discussed in It’s Sunday in America. I don’t believe that Scripture gives us cause for hope that constitutional democracy will last forever. All we can hope to achieve is a slowing of the trends. But the good news is that God, who predicted the crisis of democracy at the end of time, can be trusted to see us through the crises that may now be just before us.

[1]Mounk, Yascha. The People Vs Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is In Danger & How To Save It.  Cambridge, Massachusetts, Princeton University Press, 2018.

[2]The People Vs Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is In Danger & How To Save It, 99-130.

[3]The People Vs Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is In Danger & How To Save It, 134-181.

[4]The People Vs Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is In Danger & How To Save It, 181.