Is liberal democracy in terminal decline?

Overall Trajectory of Liberal Democracy

• Some argue liberal democracy is in “terminal decline” or at terminal velocity; others see serious backsliding but not collapse yet.
• One view: we are moving into long-lasting “hybrid regimes” (formal elections, eroded rule-of-law) rather than outright dictatorships.
• Optimists think current authoritarian drift is a backlash to deeper shifts (end of patriarchy, waning Western dominance) and that democracy will eventually rebound after painful conflict or crisis.
• Pessimists stress that the post‑WWII conditions that sustained liberal democracy (demographics, growth, US hegemony) are gone and unlikely to return.

US Institutions, Constitution, and Elections

• Many comments focus on US constitutional flaws: an executive ignoring laws and court orders, Congress offloading power, and a Supreme Court seen as partisan and increasingly illegitimate.
• Debate over decisions like DACA, abortion (Dobbs), and “presidential immunity” as examples of executive overreach vs. judicial activism.
• Concern that state-level partisans could subvert elections via certification games, voter suppression, and sympathetic courts, without “cancelling” elections outright.
• Some argue the system works “as intended” for those who spent decades capturing institutions; others say the constitutional design to pit branches against each other has failed.
• Questions raised about the real legitimacy of a centuries‑old constitution that no living citizen explicitly consented to, versus the practical need for some foundational charter.

Europe, Democracy Indices, and Institutional Decay

• Several note many EU states are now “flawed democracies” or hybrid regimes per EIU indices; others distrust these rankings as subjective or politicized.
• Discussion of specific countries (e.g., Hungary, Czechia, Romania, UK) as examples of democratic degradation, media capture risks, and patronage‑based systems where connections trump formal rules.
• Disagreement over whether institutional weakening in Central/Eastern Europe and the UK meaningfully undermines “full democracy,” especially around media funding and civil liberties.

Security State, Foreign Influence, and Oligarchy

• Dispute over claims that Western governments (especially US agencies) “install” liberal leaders abroad versus more mundane soft power and state‑department‑driven policy.
• Worry about entrenched security and surveillance apparatus (post‑9/11, immigration enforcement) as structurally anti‑liberal and politically hard to roll back.
• Broader critique that what is called “liberal democracy” often functions as elective oligarchy: laws made by and for elites, with ordinary voters having little direct say.

Culture, Media, and Social Foundations

• Some see social media as a major accelerant of democratic decline by rewarding outrage, conspiracy and anti‑system narratives; others counter that legacy media’s own failures (omissions, bias, elite capture) created that vacuum.
• Debate over whether liberal democracy is rooted in Christian ethics, broader Greco‑Roman traditions, or secular liberalism; examples from Muslim‑majority and Asian democracies are used to challenge exclusivist claims.
• Confusion and drift around the term “liberal”: commenters distinguish classical liberalism (rule of law, rights, limited state) from contemporary “left” identities, arguing that category slippage obscures what’s actually eroding.