Harvey Mansfield: Liberal Democracy as a Mixed Regime

Conversations with Bill Kristol

What is liberal democracy? What parts of human nature does liberal democracy rely on and try to cultivate? How can Aristotle help us understand America? In this thought-provoking and challenging Conversation, Harvey Mansfield shares his interpretation of liberal democracy as a regime that relies on both the democratic and aristocratic parts of human nature. However, citizens of liberal democracy tend to deny or misunderstand the aristocratic elements of the liberal democratic regime. According to Mansfield, this leads to the underestimation of the need for virtue in public and private life. And virtue is indispensable for a healthy politics. Relying on Aristotle’s classic account of the mixed regime, Mansfield argues that a deeper understanding of both the democratic and aristocratic parts of liberal democracy could help us better understand ourselves—and perhaps help us improve liberal democracy.