Does any relationship exist then between individual liberty and democracy?
The only thing that liberty requires is for the individual to be able to do something to restrict the actions of the government. I do not believe that giving positive instructions to the government on what it is supposed to do is part of liberty. But the fact is that one cannot have liberty if we cannot exercise the right to prevent the Government doing certain things. Nonetheless, it appears clear that democracy in the West is going through a credibility crisis. What, in your judgement, is this due to? People supposed that democracy would be competent to legislate. This was in a time when legislating meant establishing general standards of individual conduct. But today we attach the name of law to everything emanating from authority, whether or not it has the character of law. Montesquieu’s old precept of the separation of powers has been shattered. Once upon a time, when we spoke of legislation, this referred to something very different. Today the legislator’s authority has become om
