20 of America's top political scientists gathered to discuss our democracy. They're scared.

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
> Date: October 16, 2017 at 5:55:09 AM EDT
> To: Multiple recipients of Dewayne-Net <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] 20 of America's top political scientists gathered to discuss our democracy. They're scared.
> Reply-To: dewayne-net () warpspeed com
>
> [Note:  This item comes from friend Mike Cheponis.  DLH]
>
> 20 of America's top political scientists gathered to discuss our democracy. They're scared.
> “If current trends continue for another 20 or 30 years, democracy will be toast.”
> By Sean Illing
> Oct 13 2017
> <https://www.vox.com/2017/10/13/16431502/america-democracy-decline-liberalism>
>
> Is American democracy in decline? Should we be worried?
>
> On October 6, some of America’s top political scientists gathered at Yale University to answer these questions. And 
> nearly everyone agreed: American democracy is eroding on multiple fronts — socially, culturally, and economically. 
>
> The scholars pointed to breakdowns in social cohesion (meaning citizens are more fragmented than ever), the rise of 
> tribalism, the erosion of democratic norms such as a commitment to rule of law, and a loss of faith in the electoral 
> and economic systems as clear signs of democratic erosion. 
>
> No one believed the end is nigh, or that it’s too late to solve America’s many problems. Scholars said that America’s 
> institutions are where democracy has proven most resilient. So far at least, our system of checks and balances is 
> working — the courts are checking the executive branch, the press remains free and vibrant, and Congress is (mostly) 
> fulfilling its role as an equal branch. 
>
> But there was a sense that the alarm bells are ringing.
>
> Yascha Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard University, summed it up well: “If current trends continue for 
> another 20 or 30 years, democracy will be toast.”
>
> “Democracies don’t fall apart — they’re taken apart” 
>
> Nancy Bermeo, a politics professor at Princeton and Harvard, began her talk with a jarring reminder: Democracies 
> don’t merely collapse, as that “implies a process devoid of will.” Democracies die because of deliberate decisions 
> made by human beings. 
>
> Usually, it’s because the people in power take democratic institutions for granted. They become disconnected from the 
> citizenry. They develop interests separate and apart from the voters. They push policies that benefit themselves and 
> harm the broader population. Do that long enough, Bermeo says, and you’ll cultivate an angry, divided society that 
> pulls apart at the seams. 
>
> So how might this look in America?
>
> Adam Przeworski, a democratic theorist at New York University, suggested that democratic erosion in America begins 
> with a breakdown in what he calls the “class compromise.” His point is that democracies thrive so long as people 
> believe they can improve their lot in life. This basic belief has been “an essential ingredient of Western 
> civilization during the past 200 years,” he said. 
>
> But fewer and fewer Americans believe this is true. Due to wage stagnation, growing inequalities, automation, and a 
> shrinking labor market, millions of Americans are deeply pessimistic about the future: 64 percent of people in Europe 
> believe their children will be worse off than they were; the number is 60 percent in America.
>
> That pessimism is grounded in economic reality. In 1970, 90 percent of 30-year-olds in America were better off than 
> their parents at the same age. In 2010, only 50 percent were. Numbers like this cause people to lose faith in the 
> system. What you get is a spike in extremism and a retreat from the political center. That leads to declines in voter 
> turnout and, consequently, more opportunities for fringe parties and candidates. 
>
> Political polarization is an obvious problem, but researchers like Przeworski suggest something more profound is 
> going on. Political theorists like to talk about the “social compact,” which is basically an implicit agreement among 
> members of society to participate in a system that benefits everyone. 
>
> Well, that only works if the system actually delivers on its promises. If it fails to do so, if it leads enough 
> people to conclude that the alternative is less scary than the status quo, the system will implode from within. 
>
> Is that happening here? Neither Przeworski nor anyone else went quite that far. But we know there’s a growing 
> disconnect between productivity (how hard people work) and compensation (how much they’re paid for that work). At the 
> same time, we’ve seen a spike in racial animus, particularly on the right. It seems likely there’s a connection here.
>
> Przeworski believes that American democracy isn’t collapsing so much as deteriorating. “Our divisions are not merely 
> political but have deep roots in society,” he argues. The system has become too rigged and too unfair, and most 
> people have no real faith in it. 
>
> Where does that leave us? Nowhere good, Przeworski says. The best he could say is that “our current crisis will 
> continue for the foreseeable future.”
>
> [snip]
>
> Dewayne-Net RSS Feed: http://dewaynenet.wordpress.com/feed/
> Twitter: https://twitter.com/wa8dzp



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/18849915-ae8fa580
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-aa268125
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-32545cb4&post_id=20171016064149:9AFC2EAE-B25E-11E7-A047-B0473131B521
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com