While many have argued for an “elective affinity” between liberalism and democracy, the main architects of the liberal order recognized not only that the two were different political forms, but that they would often be in tension if not outright conflict with each other. Many thinkers on both the right and left have recognized (and often either celebrated or lamented) that liberalism seeks to contain democracy, and democracy often will seek to overturn key features of liberalism. Those theoretical tensions are now becoming manifest in the political crises evident in our everyday political lives. We are witness to the increasing possibility that the often rocky marriage between liberalism and democracy is heading for a mutually desired and acrimonious divorce, though the terms of their separation will greatly depend on unpredictable political events of coming years.

Patrick Deneen, Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame, is the author of Democratic Faith (2005), Why Liberalism Failed (2018), and Regime Change: Toward a Postliberal Future (2023). In his recent work, he has advocated that American conservative activists endorse a postliberal regime type he calls “Aristopopulism,” oriented toward strengthening communal bonds that will resurrect an otherwise imperiled sense of “the common good.”

This event is part of the Henry H. Arnhold Forum on Global Challenges.