This article outlines the contradictions of liberalism, or the ways in which liberal governments contradict their own values. As such, this article takes representative democracy, capitalism, punitive justice and reformism as justified. Even if as libertarian socialists we have our own critiques of these concepts.
General Contradictions
- Liberalism often justifies itself by claiming to have 'checks and balances' to prevent a authoritarian regime from coming to power. Let's look at all the times that failed in the 20th and 21st centuries alone:
Note: we won't be covering liberal democracies which became authoritarian after an invasion, like France and Norway in World War II
- Algeria
- Angola
- Argentina
- Belarus
- Benin
- Bolivia
- Brazil
- Burkina Faso
- Burundi
- Cameroon
- Cape Verde
- Central African Republic
- Chad
- Chile
- Comoros
- Congo
- Cuba
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Djibouti
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- Gabon
- Germany
- Ghana
- Greece
- Guatemala
- Guinea
- Guinea-Bissau
- Hungary
- Ivory Coast
- Japan
- Laos
- Lesotho
- Liberia
- Libya
- Madagascar
- Malawi
- Mali
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Niger
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Portugal
- Russia
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Seychelles
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Korea
- South Sudan
- Spain
- Sudan
- Syria
- Thailand
- The Gambia
- Togo
- Turkey
- Uganda
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
- This means that, only 3 out of 3 liberal countries have managed to stay completely true to liberal values since their independence or overthrowing of a dictator who ruled during independence, they are:
Iceland
- The Icelandic government has repeatedly promised to pull out of NATO, but has failed to deliver on said promise.
- Iceland had major issues of corruption and abuse by the finance sector which led to a revolution in 2009.
- Iceland has a very famous case of police misconduct - The Reykjavik Confessions.