ABSTRACT
One of the biggest challenges to democracy today is posed by the dramatic change in the political-party landscape, especially in Europe but in some other parts of the world as well. Attention understandably has focused on the rise of a variety of populist candidates and movements, but what has enabled their rise is the drastic decline in support for the parties that had long dominated the political scene. While for decades the modal configuration of Western political systems has featured strong center-left and center-right parties or coalitions that support the basic principles and institutions of liberal democracy but compete with each other in regard to a variety of specific issues within this larger framework, virtually every new round of elections indicates that this longstanding pattern of dominance is losing its hold. For the most part, it is the parties of the center-left that have been experiencing the steepest decline, and there are signs that the commitment to liberal democracy of some emerging forces on the left is questionable. But there is a real threat that mainstream center-right parties will be captured by tendencies that are indifferent or even hostile to liberal democracy. The struggle of these tendencies to win over the right will be the most consequential development affecting the future of democracy in the period ahead. This battle will be fought out not only in the arena of party competition but also in the realm of political thought.
