Perspective: Why is American democracy in danger?
A reflection of the U.S. Capitol dome is seen as the sun sets March 21, 2018. By Eric Schoon and Corey Pech March 5 at 6:00 AM The United States is a flawed democracy. This is not a subjective statement, but rather a rating assigned to the United States by the Economist’s annual Democracy Index.
In fact, our current moment shares striking similarities with pre-World War II Europe, when the number of democracies was also shrinking rather than rising. In 1959, Seymour Martin Lipset, one of the 20th century’s most prominent theorists of democracy, identified two broad factors as critical to explaining the differences between stable and unstable democracies during this period: economic development and political legitimacy.
While Lipset’s focus on the overall wealth and development of nations would not capture inequality today, at the time of his writing, more-developed countries were experiencing their highest degree of economic equality in history. His findings, thus, lent credence to his assertion that “a society divided between a large impoverished mass and a small favored elite would result either in oligarchy … or in tyranny.
Moreover, researchers have documented the increasing commodification of opportunities, showing that educational opportunities are increasingly dependent on the affluence and private resources of individual families. Indeed, much of the polarization and frustration in America can be linked to the failure to resolve fundamental cleavages. Debates over abortion rights, gun rights, access to health care, voting rights and other important social issues have amassed over the past half-century along increasingly partisan lines.
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