Several countries adopted stringent lockdown measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Australia’s own rules were particularly draconian and the country might just have traded away too much liberty in its drive to manage the pandemic. This article by Conor Friedersdorf is published by The Atlantic. Here is an excerpt:

In a bid to keep the coronavirus out of the country, Australia’s federal and state governments imposed draconian restrictions on its citizens. Prime Minister Scott Morrison knows that the burden is too heavy. “This is not a sustainable way to live in this country,” he recently declared. One prominent civil libertarian summed up the rules by lamenting, “We’ve never seen anything like this in our lifetimes.”

Up to now one of Earth’s freest societies, Australia has become a hermit continent. How long can a country maintain emergency restrictions on its citizens’ lives while still calling itself a liberal democracy?

Australia has been testing the limits.

Read the full story here.

How long can a democracy maintain emergency restrictions and still call itself a free country?