The European Union and the "Rule of Law."

Poland and Hungary are balking at the fine print in the latest EU coronavirus aid package, which requires them to adhere to "the rule of law" in disbursements.

Whose laws, whose rules?

One does not have to have unblinking admiration for the two nations to understand the concerns regarding what the mandarins in Brussels might mean by the phrase.

Now to the open forum side questions: is democracy inherently "liberal," as in the classical liberal sense?  Does it have to be? Obviously, there have been "Democratic Republics" in recent memory which were nothing remotely liberal. Or democratic. Or truly republican.

The same goes for unaccountable centralized bureaucracies with edict addiction.

But does democracy in the "Western," non-Marxist sense of the word have to have a deliberately classical liberal basis to work?

These aren't rhetorical questions disguising a conclusion--I am in "Dorm Room Bull Session Mode" here.