The Demon in Democracy: Totalitarian Temptation in Free Societies by Ryszard Legutko (review)

Lugutko Ruszard is a professor of philosophy at the Jagellonian University, Krakow. A specialist in ancient philosophy and political theory, his most recent book is entitled simply Socrates. He is known widely in Europe as a statesman who has served as Poland's Minister of Education and as Secretary of State. He is currently a member of the European Parliament.

The Demon in Democracy is about the similarities between communism and liberal democracy. Lugutko speaks with what he calls the authority of common sense, that is, from the perspective of Aristotle, Plutarch, and Cicero.

In Legutko's judgment, liberal democracy has become an all-composing ideology that, behind a veil of tolerance, brooks little or no disagreement. In fact, it resembles the totalitarian state of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Zedong. Both communism and liberal democracy compel their subjects with respect to what to think, what to do, what language to use, and how to evaluate events. Both systems are grounded in a philosophical materialism that determines one's view of nature and human nature, with consequences in the practical order.

Speaking of its consequences in the United States, Legutko can cite Roe v. Wade (1973), which established a woman's constitutional right to abortion; Engle v. Vitale (1962), which determined that voluntary prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the establishment of religion, in effect banning school prayer; the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which promoted racial preference; and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), which, "against the immemorial common sense of civilized peoples," established gay marriage as a protected right. Call this legislation "progressive jurisprudence," if you will; in fact, it is the liberal tactic of using the courts to achieve goals that cannot be attained through the legislative process. Under such jurisprudence, the court becomes a political institution.

"Modern liberalism," as Legutko uses the term, is to be distinguished from that of nineteenth- and twentieth-century liberalism, which was essentially majoritarian democracy resting on constitutional liberal guarantees of free speech, free association, free media, and other liberties needed to insure that debate is real and elections fair. Within that context, the people rule, both as voters and as citizens, making free choices, determined by electoral majorities in accountable bodies. The modern liberal mind has liberated itself from the obligations of the past. Its most odious of assumptions is that the purpose of man's existence is to change the world, whose proponents, Legutko says, "arm this assumption with arrogance, self-indulgence and irresponsibility." In spite of the collapse of the Soviet Union, both communists and liberal democrats hold the view that history is on their side. Perceived from within their ranks there is no alternative.

Legutko points to an internal contradiction: "The very idea of liberal democracy should presuppose the freedom of action, which means every man and every group or party should be given a free choice of what they want to pursue." Yet the process of building a liberal democratic society necessitates the withdrawal of freedom from those whose actions and interests are hostile to what the liberal democrats conceive as the source of freedom. We have observed over the last few decades the emergence of what may be called a "liberal democratic will," an omnipresent outlook, independent of the wills of individuals. Promoted by the media, the visual arts, and a common educational curriculum, in its light legislatures and judges make laws. The liberal general will reaches areas that Rousseau never dreamt of—language, gestures, and thoughts.

Viewed from Legutko's historical perspective, one finds that liberal democracy results in a gradual sliding down from the high to the low, from the refined to the coarse. Legutko acknowledges that sometimes a step down has been welcomed as refreshing, natural, and healthy, but too often it has brought vulgarity to language, behavior, education, and moral rules, and the loss of a sense of decorum and...