Thoughts and Reflections on Democracy

 The clash of the Titans. Conservatives versus Liberals

In times of great social changes, societies experience a drift between conservatives and liberal forces.

The conservatives usually strive for maintaining the sociopolitical order (the status-quo).

Liberals struggle to produce social change.

There have always been and always would be people that tend to preserve the sociopolitical rules and norms and to preserve their privileges, while others would try to push for change (reform).

The manner the situations are dealt with differentiates between revolutions and progressive legislative reforms.


Democracy as a concept was at first inspired by the writings of The Enlightenment School.

The democratic and liberal ideas that set the bases for the modern state were assumed by people who got inspired by  Enlightenment's writings.

Some societies escalated the ideas in the form of social conflict in order to reach democracy, as we know it today.

Revolutions that rapidly propagated throughout Europe were born based on these liberal and democratic ideas.

In some societies, the struggle for democracy escalated the social conflict in the form of Revolutions, inspired by France. (1789; 1848)

Some others have followed the path of gradual, but stable legislative reform through The Legislative Body (The Parliament), as is the case of Great Britain.

However, in the case of Great Britain's pathway towards democracy, there were large well-known protest movements organized by campaigners for the social change, but their public manifestation was in peaceful and non-violent manners.


Social conflicts escalate when there is not enough social debate about the issue in the public sphere.

The avoidance of the escalations of conflicts is ensured by citizens’ participation in the public debates.

Political participation of citizens in the democratic game ensures the existence of a healthy civil society.

The debates on important issues among policy-makers, the civil society and the media lead to social consensus.

Building bridges of communication among us will establish social consensus.



Today, we are witnessing the emergence of the International Community.

The International Community should represent all the communities of people around the world. 

Nowadays, the community is international, the issues and their solutions are global, the involvment is transnational and intergovernmental. 


We are living in an interconnected world; the issues that need to be addressed outreach the formal states' borders or frontiers. 

The public sphere for the civil society becomes global.  

Social consensus sets the bases for a global democracy.

Social consensus may be reached when all the silent voices get the chance to be heard.

Let the silent voices be heard and we shall have freedom of speech.

Let people unite in their hopes and dreams and they will become a global free society.


As we are living in times of great geopolitical and sociopolitical changes, the old conservative versus liberal (the avant-garde generation) drift gets reinforced from time to time on global stage.

Sometimes, the moderates succeed to bring social consensus and mutual collaboration among the various social groups that are debating for the general good of the given society (national or international).

It's like a clash of the titans where moderates may play their part in order to bring a stable gradual social change.



Diana Rogers,
Writer and Founder at Global Democratic Society