To what extent is liberalism compatible with democracy?
Liberalism is associated with the modern development of democracy and democratic institutions it has not had a very strong relationship with democracy. Democracy is the means by which people could be liberated and free to express their self-interested individualism, excessive amounts of this could lead to the oppression of individuals and minorities. But the liberal belief is mainly related to self-government which is not what democracy is as everyone is coming together. As well as that there is no major sense of equality in democracy.
Classical liberals worried about tyranny of the majority which would result in individual liberty and minority rights being crushed in the name of the people. A way in which this problem could be solved is to retain the property qualification for voting so that the irresponsible majority would be denied political rights. Overall classical liberals saw democracy as becoming a threat to individual liberty. But some argued that majority would create a network of checks and balances that would make government responsive to competing minorities.
