In his article ‘Heart of liberal thought’ (December 4), Kenneth Wain eulogises liberalism and considers a liberal democratic State as one that safeguards the right to voice one’s opinion freely. Wain states that liberalism enables “our societies to be ‘open’ societies, pluralistic, inclusive [and] tolerant”.
The problem with a liberal democratic State does not lie in the fact that one is able to air one’s views freely but that there seem to be no ethical values or norms to guide one’s reasoning even though Wain contends that liberalism is “subject to the rule of law”. He also says “the liberal democratic State has no truth to defend or sustain” and “the search for truth is not the object of politics or the business of the State”.
Such propositions show how limited and inconclusive is a liberal democratic State. If, on its own, a liberal State has no intention of searching for truth then it needs other structures to help it attain truth. Wain argues that “the search for truth... signifies a desire to close off debate, to make debate redundant”, while “the liberal democratic State enables debate to remain open and inconclusive”.
So, what’s the purpose of debating if the aim is not to reach any conclusion? How can one remain neutral while debating social justice and the common good?
No wonder that Pope Benedict appeals to the role of religion in his address to politicians at Westminster in 2010 when he argues: “If moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident – herein lies the challenge for democracy.”
The role of religion, the Pontiff concludes, is “to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles”. This is the crux of the argument. The main defect of a liberal democratic State lies in the fact that, by remaining neutral, there are no moral or ethical principles to guide it. However attractive and appealing is a liberal State it cannot be considered self-sufficient. Ultimately, it leads to chaos and confusion for it is not enough to have the right to say what one thinks and debate endlessly.
A democratic State should be able to discover those moral principles that help bring about social justice and attain the common good.