Modern liberal governance differs fundamentally from ancient democracy.

Evidence

The distinctive feature of modern liberal governance, I would submit, is neither compulsion (force) nor negotiation (consent) but the statecraft that uses “self-discipline” and “participation,” “law” and “economy” as elements of political strategy. In spite of the reference to “democracy, ancient or modern,” which suggests a comparability of political predicaments, the problems and resources of modern society are utterly different from those of a Greek polis. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 24

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds the reader’s core question: when ‘secular modernity’ claims continuity with ancient democracy, it masks the distinctively Christian-secular genealogy — bridging to Cooper.