What does it mean to be 'free' in a liberal democracy? At the very least, it must mean that people are able to form opinions and pursue goals relating to the direction of their life with a minimum of interference from the state. If people are prevented from developing their own ideas about what constitutes a good and moral life, they simply become tools of the state. This is especially true when the state promotes the ideology of any one religion as defining what is good and moral.

 

Read Article: Freedom as Self-Determination: Democracy as Independence from Religion