Viewed from within, liberal democracy in Western countries resembles a thin sheet of paper that has ended up between the blades of a pair of political scissors, between right-wing and left-wing radicals. It is under constant attack by ideologically confused far leftists, so-called “conservatives,” and nationalist parties.

The left, especially the orthodox socialists and Marxists, are eternally suspicious of liberals. They see them as defenders of deregulated markets, of a limited role for the government, and of a reduced role for trade unions, as well as other economic and political values inherent in capitalism. Those perceived as conservatives, on the other hand, both support the functioning of a maximally deregulated national market and declare themselves protectionists and against free trade. Nationalists and national (right-wing) populists rely on statism and protectionism and are a constant source of xenophobia and racism. These three political groups have pushed liberalism into the corner of the political systems inside Western nation-states.

From the outside, liberal democracy has been subjected to continuous attacks and systematic attempts at delegitimization by post-communist and authoritarian states and theocratic regimes. In the decade since 2010, there has been propaganda working to turn “liberalism” and “liberal democracy” from concepts that describe the political philosophy and structure of the Western democracy into negative political labels. Focused on attacking globalization and halting ethnic, racial, and cultural changes in their own countries, some politicians in the Western world have “declared war” on the political traditions and achievements of their own countries.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, in the countries of the Western world, there has been an ongoing process of unification in values and politics. Traditional political worldviews, ideologies, and approaches to governance are being devalued and replaced by concepts of pragmatism, centrism, and state efficiency. This changes the direction and the quality of the policy conversation and creates new lines of division. With the revival of nationalism in Europe, and especially with the emergence of national populism in the United States, “left-right” competition has been reformulated as “conservative-liberal.”

The main political cleavages have shifted from the sphere of ideology to the sphere of the sociocultural worldview. Individual self-determination, cultural identity, ethnicity, racial divisions, gender inequality, religious prejudices, social exclusion, and all person-centered issues exert a much more significant impact on political motivations than do traditional social divisions such as profession, income, education, or belonging to a particular social group or class. This significantly changes and complicates the process of political identification.

In a number of cases, people do not find their place on the left-right system of coordinates on the basis of traditional political ideas. It is much easier for them to situate their personal views and outlooks in the context of the division between change and the status quo. In many cases, this has led to the return of the “conservative-liberal” political clash of the 19th century. The essence of this clash remains in the background. In the foreground, “liberal” boils down to supporting change, and “conservative,” to maintaining the status quo.