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#1 We must understand the elements that make up a liberal democracy, as they are not always used in the same way. When talking about politics, liberalism is often used to describe a person’s political views, but when talking about basic values, a liberal is somebody who is committed to them.

#2 Democracy is often defined as a system with free, fair, and competitive elections, full adult suffrage, protection of civil liberties, and the absence of nonelected tutelary authorities that limit elected officials’ power to govern. However, this definition does not differentiate between liberalism, democracy, and the historically contingent set of institutions in North America and Western Europe.

#3 The glue that has bound liberal democracy together for the past few decades is now rapidly dissolving. As a result, liberal democracy is beginning to decompose into two new regime forms: illiberal democracy, or democracy without rights, and undemocratic liberalism, or rights without democracy.

#4 The German people have been protesting every Monday night in the center of their cities against the government’s policies regarding refugees. Their central slogan is We are the People, a reference to the citizens of East Germany who flocked to the streets to protest their government in 1989.

Summary of Yascha Mounk's The People vs. Democracy

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