ABSTRACT
It is a recurring theme in this study that liberal democracies are far more liberal than they are truly democratic. Whilst they allow freedom of speech and assembly such that citizens can join permanent well-resourced groups such as political parties, businesses or interest groups, the capacity of each individual to have a strong personal voice in the making of policy that affects their interests is seriously, and as shall be argued later, unnecessarily limited. Within each liberal democracy there is, as discussed in Chapters 7 and 8, a bureaucratic structuring of institutions and values that operates largely through autocratic channels. This theme can be further observed in those elements of the policy making process occurring largely between the time that policy issues are taken up by government and the legitimation of policy. This may be depicted as a period of policy refinement in which a government, having agreed in principle that a change in policy may be necessary, then sets about determining in greater detail how this is to be codified in legislation or decrees prior to legitimising the decisions in some form of ceremony communicable to the wider domestic and international societies. By no means all policies follow such a path, as some policy changes may lie outside this more complex pattern, such as changes in attitudes of a ruling elite to other nations or interests that will colour their future behaviour toward these organisations. Similarly, the many elements within policies based on self-interest and the struggle for power within a state are rarely communicated to the wider public.
