De Benoist sees liberal democracy as tending toward oligarchy, not by abolishing democracy, but by emptying it from within: power shifts from the demos toward a narrow political class chosen to represent them. The system remains democratic on the surface, with elections, parties, and institutions, but citizens vote occasionally without meaningfully shaping decisions. Over time, this fuels career politicians and shared interests among cross-party elites, while major parties begin to resemble one another. At the same time, power increasingly migrates toward bureaucracies, courts, central banks, and supranational bodies that are not directly accountable to voters, yet still shape the future of countries and their communities. The result is a political order in which institutions become entrenched, economic actors learn to benefit from them, and citizens supposedly sovereign are reduced to spectators rather than participants.
We won’t vote our way out of this.
Leave a Reply