How to Use illiberalism in a Sentence

illiberalism

noun
  • That is the path to illiberalism; there lies the road to fascism.
    — Samuel Clowes Huneke, The New Republic, 26 Oct. 2023
  • No such gesture could reverse the wave of illiberalism that has engulfed so much of the world.
    — David Remnick, The New Yorker, 28 Aug. 2022
  • Soros seems to have spent most of his life raging against illiberalism and dictatorship.
    — Samanth Subramanian, Quartz, 24 May 2022
  • In the context of growing illiberalism in Western countries as well, the news has been gloomy.
    — Tom Ball, The New Republic, 1 July 2019
  • But more seriously, Mounk doesn’t describe the illiberalism on the left with any rigor.
    — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 27 Oct. 2020
  • The new governing coalition is open in its extremism and illiberalism.
    — Emily Tamkin, The New Republic, 7 Mar. 2023
  • Orbán, the warrior of illiberalism, will continue his fight on the international scene; for him, there is no way back.
    — Zsuzsanna Szelényi, The New Republic, 5 Apr. 2022
  • After the armistice in Europe, illiberalism at home grew even worse, as if the violent spirit of war needed new feeding grounds.
    — George Packer, The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2022
  • Higher education has come under fire from one side for illiberalism, and from the other for injustice.
    — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 30 Jan. 2024
  • Do not ask when this choice between liberalism and illiberalism will come to America.
    — Andrew Sullivan, Daily Intelligencer, 13 Apr. 2018
  • The growth of illiberalism on the right has been fed, in large part, by the belief that progressives have already rendered liberalism a fiction.
    — Osita Nwanevu, The New Republic, 7 June 2020
  • In reality, China has strengthened the forces of illiberalism around the globe.
    — Hal Brands, National Review, 17 Feb. 2022
  • The illiberalism here lies with the law’s critics, who would deny the Jewish state the freedom to legislate like a normal country.
    — Eugene Kontorovich, WSJ, 19 July 2018
  • The tide of illiberalism rises, and our elite institutions are contributing to its dangerous surge.
    — David French, National Review, 1 July 2019
  • The poisonous outpouring of antisemitism is a symptom of the illiberalism the Left has chosen to ignore.
    — Noah Rothman, National Review, 10 Nov. 2023
  • One possibility that has been much discussed is that it will be seen as the dawn of America’s descent into illiberalism.
    — Ezra Klein, Vox, 10 May 2018
  • Perhaps the coming age will feature populist illiberalisms of the left and right, with one side or the other essentially disenfranchised.
    — The Economist, 4 Dec. 2019
  • The book is an expression of the old liberalism, supplanted by leftism and other flavors of illiberalism.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 20 Aug. 2020
  • This book is an expression of the old liberalism, supplanted by leftism and other flavors of illiberalism.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 31 Aug. 2020
  • If either of those things were happening, that would certainly be a big story, bolstering the narrative being pushed by those obsessed with illiberalism on the left.
    — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 4 Mar. 2021
  • Finally, it must also be remembered that to some extent populism and expansion of the franchise can sometimes feed into illiberalism.
    — Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 3 Dec. 2011
  • The controversy over the display is yet another example of increasing illiberalism on the right.
    — Matthew Malec, National Review, 27 Dec. 2023
  • That troubling tilt toward illiberalism is the unspoken tension in the Washington visit.
    — Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, 21 June 2023
  • Wilner became obsessed with the case, the fundamental un-American nature of the prison, and the public’s compliance, if not outright support, for its illiberalism.
    — Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 6 July 2022
  • The illiberalism of the Dobbs decision should be apparent enough from the laws depriving women of their basic right to reproductive autonomy.
    — Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 23 July 2022
  • That lack of clarity and consensus in the face of increasing illiberalism and democratic backsliding weakens its position in the world, Sabanadze said.
    — Ellen Ioanes, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
  • The aftermath of the incident had made Murray a martyr for free speech, and Harris brought him on the show in part as a statement of disgust with the illiberalism that had greeted Murray on campus.
    — Ezra Klein, Vox, 27 Mar. 2018
  • But the law gives Brussels a specific step that can be challenged by European bureaucracy to take Hungary to task more broadly for embracing illiberalism.
    — chicagotribune.com, 26 Apr. 2017
  • Roger Kimball took this stance in 1990 in Tenured Radicals, a screed against leftist illiberalism in higher education.
    — Aaron R. Hanlon, The New Republic, 11 Nov. 2021
  • Macron’s reelection, thanks in part to voters who sided with him only to thwart Le Pen, shows that a popular bulwark against such illiberalism still very much exists, no matter Le Pen’s steady electoral gains over the past decade.
    — Washington Post, 24 Apr. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'illiberalism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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