While both liberalism and democracy are two political concepts that are capable of standing alone, they are also able to stand together in the form of a liberal democracy. In today’s politics there are two forms of liberalism that have been established; classical liberalism (or neo-liberalism) and modern liberalism, and while liberalism is known for being concerned mainly with “the individual” and self-ruling and democracy mainly with majority rule - the two are seen to compliment each other in the fact they both are linked with freedom. This essay will look at what liberalism means, the different features found in liberalism as well as its two main forms and how they differ. This essay will also look at what makes a democracy, before moving on to look at liberal democracy and how liberalism contributes to liberal democracy by actually forming the basis of liberal democracy by becoming the core features of the political system.
What is Liberalism?
Liberalism is known as an ideology (a system of ideas which form the base of a political or economic theory and/or policy (Oxford 2009, 255), it is also a conception that encourages a high regard for the idea of the ‘individual’ as well as toleration for the individual (Sandel 1996, 4). Liberalism
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Liberals also ensure the protection of individual freedoms from the collective by “ring fencing” them in the constitution; this is done by entrenching the freedoms in the constitution meaning that more than just a simple majority is needed in order to change any one specific freedom within the constitution (Gamble 1981). This shows not only how liberal features were incorporated into liberal democracy but how liberals physically affected the layout of liberal