A New War of Words: Democracy, Illiberalism, and the Forgotten Lessons of Liberalism

In recent years, an unprecedented illiberal option has gained ground: the hypothesis of a combination of democracy and illiberalism after the crisis of liberalism. This option is promoted by some European political leaders, who use the label ‘illiberal democracy’ to describe their political goals. This has led to a ‘war of words’: is it right to use the term ‘illiberal democracy’? Is it possible to combine democracy and illiberalism? This chapter attempts to distinguish the analytical-conceptual dimension from that of political propaganda by assessing the position of those who advocate a shift in focus from the adjective (illiberal) to the noun (illiberalism). In this way, it will be possible to distinguish between an ‘old’ and a ‘new’ illiberalism, thus avoiding theoretical-conceptual confusion that is detrimental to a serious debate on the transformations of democracy.