Threats to Liberalism in a Nascent Democracy: Authoritarian Encroachment, a Security Dilemma, and a Political-Cultural Deficit

This article offers a complimentary analysis to Prof. Thompson’s treatise on democracy in East Asia. It focuses on the external source of democratic backsliding, a look into the future, and an emphasis on the dilemma of meeting the security challenge while remaining liberal in a world rapidly plunging into Cold War 2.0. Three sources of threat to nascent liberal democracies are identified: authoritarian encroachment, a security dilemma, and a political-cultural deficit. There are striking similarities between the response of a country to external threat and a human body’s response to pathogens (such as SARS-CoV-2). These responses also have similar effects on the survival of the country and the infected person. In order to analyze the relation between a country’s external environment and its polity, a historical account of how the perception of relative security managed to advance liberal political institutions and threats to national security thwarted liberalization in the constitutional development of the Republic of China is offered. This complement ends with a warning about how the world’s plunge into Cold War 2.0 may adversely impact nascent liberal democracies in East Asia that bear the brunt of the rise of an authoritarian China.