Illiberalism comes in multiple flavors

By David Cheng

On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Mexico to express their anger at President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposed “reforms” to the National Electoral Institute (INE), which is the agency in charge of overseeing Mexico’s federal elections. López Obrador, also known by his initials, AMLO, intends to strip INE of much of its funding, reduce its staffing, and close many of its offices. Many critics have called this move anti-democratic, claiming that AMLO wants to interfere in the electoral process to ensure his party’s victory in the next election. Unfortunately, they are right. These unneeded and unwanted changes are dangerous for Mexico’s young democracy, which only came into existence in 2000 with the end of one-party rule. One of the integral parts of a healthy democracy is the acceptance by all political parties that they won’t govern forever; invariably, their opponents will succeed in an election and hold power for some amount of time. AMLO and his party (known as MORENA) don’t seem content with this. He has relentlessly attacked those opposed to his “reforms” as elitist, racist, and classist. These claims are, of course, absurd, since free and fair elections benefit all people, regardless of race, class, or social status. A system in which one party is dominant would, in fact, harm marginalized groups the most since the government, insulated from electoral consequences, would not have any incentive to attend to their interests. 

What all this means is that we must be vigilant of anti-democratic behavior both from the right and the left. Just because you might agree with some of AMLO’s policies doesn’t mean that you can’t criticize him when he’s making an objectively unwise decision. It would certainly be most unfortunate if left-of-center politics in Mexico were to be tarnished by the authoritarian actions of one man. The term “illiberalism” may lead one to believe that it is associated with a certain ideology or set of policies, but it is more about the rejection of liberal democratic principles. Just as Vladimir Putin (a distinctly right-wing figure) is illiberal, so, too, can left-wing leaders exhibit the same behaviors. While I certainly would not put AMLO in the same category as Putin, it’s important for those who value democracy to call out his anti-democratic behavior so that he does not continue down a perilous path that might see Mexico extinguish the democratic institutions that its people fought so hard to build.