ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the constellation of institutions and meanings connected to liberal democracies, that is, democracies in which commercial life and free markets play a central role. An examination of each of the conceptions of the historical role of liberal democracy would cover the entire front of Modern social philosophy. The chapter argues that the type of thinking about the promise of liberal democracy—one that sees it as an historical achievement with mixed results—is the most defensible theologically and empirically. It shows that a liberal commercial democracy is more likely to produce liminal personalities than universal citizens. When tyrannical governments claim to be democratic and their claim merely proves that no one can be against democracy. A view takes a sober assessment of what market society and liberal democracy can and have achieved but assumes that there is more that lies ahead than our imaginations can dream.
