@themajormayor said:
@theone86: When did I say they are bastions of democracies? They certainly are not. But they both certainly are true elective democracies with comparatively high degrees of freedom.
Singular acts presented separate from the context of the whole political system, with your own twist to it, does not make a country authoritarian.
Freedom of political choice and participation, freedom of speech and press, freedom of religion etc. That's all textbook liberalism.
The point is that if you think Poland and Israel belongs on the authoritan state table, then, for that to be true, it has to be a very big table with around 150 countries on it.
You don't understand liberalism. Independence of the judiciary is a pillar of liberalism, it prevents authoritarian behavior like using the courts to enforce an ideological agenda. Removing the independence of the judiciary is completely illiberal, which is exactly what Poland did. They know this, their ruling party has been going around touting the supposed benefits of illiberalism. Perhaps you didn't get the memo?
And singular acts do, in fact, make a country authoritarian. If they, for instance, have a fairly liberal democracy but strip citizens of the rights guaranteed by that democracy a la Israel, then they're undermining their own claim to democracy. That is an authoritarian action undertaken by the state on a regular basis as a matter of official policy, ergo it is an authoritarian state. Sure, other countries can be more authoritarian, but it is still authoritarian. It is giving the government unilateral power to enforce policy specifically prohibited by democratic norms, that is textbook authoritarianism.
And just a note, authoritarian is not the same thing as a dictatorship. You can be democratic and authoritarian at the same time. The fact that you can't make the distinction shows me exactly why your perspective on this issue is so skewed.
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