Democracy and liberalism: are they antithetical?

A professor from the ivy league university of Princeton, in the US, is puzzled that although 60% of governments in the world are elected the majority are not liberal. Illiberal policies are targeted against minorities belonging to ethnic, religious, linguistic or regional groups. Liberalism depends on property rights, political rights and civil rights. Property is owned by the elite who can use their wealth to safeguard their rights by paying for their friends to get elected. The economic recovery in the US has been cornered by the top 1%. So do they count as a minority, which should be protected, or should they be reviled as Occupy Wall Street seeks to do? A Jewish journalist, wearing the traditional Jewish skull cap, was abused, spat at and threatened with death by Muslims on the streets of Paris. Both communities qualify as minorities, so which side will the liberals take? " Political rights are of interest primarily to the organized masses - the working class or ethnic majority, depending on the structure and cleavages in society," writes the professor. The process of democracy depends on majority rule, whether in the first-past-the-post system, electoral college system or by proportional representation, so politicians will naturally promise whatever will get them elected. No liberal will want any system of government other than democracy, so it is illogical to portray ' majoritarianism ' as a kind of crime when political power depends on the majority. In developing countries the poor form the majority so politicians promise redistribution of wealth to get elected but economists will tell you that first you have to create wealth to distribute it. Hugo Chavez won 3 terms by redistributing the oil wealth of Venezuela. The result has been catastrophic, as inflation and the falling value of the Bolivar have resulted in a lack of essential goods, harming the very poor it was supposed to protect. The Congress won 2 terms by spending trillions on social schemes which resulted in soaring deficit, double digit inflation and falling growth rate. On the other hand you cannot redistribute wealth to the rich so it is in the interest of politicians to keep people poor so that they can be bought with handouts and, since the poor have no bargaining power, it helps the rich who get cheap labor for their projects. In developing countries at least liberals increase poverty and the power of the rich. For liberals proportionality in law means loving care of criminals in the hope that they will reform. They cannot understand that every time the mothers of Jessica Lall and Nitish Katara see their killers out on parole enjoying themselves they go through the pain of losing their children all over again. Michael Dukakis lost a presidential election because Willie Horton, who was out on furlough, raped and killed again. Economists have understood that humans are illogical. Liberals should understand that we are herd animals and prefer to live with our kind. That is not likely to change.