When Democracy Spawns the Antithesis of Liberalism This study presents three main hypotheses: first, that the conflict currently underway in advanced Western countries is a conflict between two cultures, each with its own value, class, cultural and political component – or between cultural identities. Second, that Russia and China have adopted the credo of the clash of civilizations against the spread of democracy and liberalism, with the view that these are Western constructs. Third, that the gap between, on the one side, the elites who embrace liberal values in alliance with the marginalized sector, minorities and women and, on the other side, the white working class, the rural, and others, had led to a weakening of the newly-forged and historic tie between democracy and liberalism, and a shift to growing conflict between them.