Liberal autocracy

A liberal autocracy is a non-democratic government that follows the principles of liberalism.^[1] Until the 20th century, most countries in Western Europe were "liberal autocracies, or at best, semi-democracies".^[2] One example of a "classic liberal autocracy" was the Austro-Hungarian Empire.^[3] According to Fareed Zakaria, a more recent example was British Hong Kong. He observed that until 1991, the British who had ruled Hong Kong since 1841 "had never held a meaningful election, but its government epitomized constitutional liberalism, protecting its citizens' basic rights (especially after World War II) and administering a relatively fair judiciary and bureaucracy".^[4]

Overview

The existence of real liberties in many of these autocracies is questionable. For instance, 19th-century autocracies often abolished feudal institutions like serfdom, guilds, privileges for the nobility and inequality before the law, but freedom of speech and freedom of association were at best limited. As such, liberal autocracy often preceded various forms of electoral democracy in the evolution of these nations, being much more open than feudal monarchies but less free than modern liberal democracies.

Hong Kong is often regarded as a special case, where in the later years of British colonial rule before the handover, there was considerable freedom of speech and freedom of association. However, it was widely recognised, including by the British, that China would not allow part of its territory to sustain these freedoms or to hold completely free elections even if it retained autonomy as a special administrative region (SAR). It was also suggested that since 2005 and prior to the consequences of the Arab Spring, Egypt had been leaning towards a liberal autocracy.^[5]

See also

• Authoritarian capitalism
• Illiberal democracy
• Autocracy
• Enlightened absolutism
• Liberal democracy
• Political liberalism