Description
The present epoch is characterized by a staggering duality of technological and economic advances on the one hand and conditions of extreme socio-economic retrogression on the other hand. Socio-economic distress in the world has gone hand in hand with disaffection in the citizenry with incumbent regimes and the quest for alternatives. Populism has generally been complicit with ideologies such as nationalism, liberalism & socialism. However, with a gradual erosion of trust in processes such as globalization, the welfare state, financial institutions in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis has meant a rising trend towards the waning of trust in liberalism in general and liberal democracy in particular. Technological progress has intensified the spread of misinformation, fake news and alternative facts. These appendages along with populism have gravely affected the legitimacy of liberalism as an ideology and weakened the four pillars of democracy in turn giving rise to authoritarianism and illiberal democracies. This paper will to delve into the rising tendencies of illiberal democracies and strategies of countering illiberalism. The paper will delve into the tendencies of Populism and Illiberalism exhibited in Hungary, Turkey, Myanmar, Poland, Egypt and India to uncover a larger pathology in Liberal International Order.
