American Democracy is Dying
Hey, Guess What? America isn’t a Democracy
Sorry. That sounds dramatic.
America is no longer a fully functioning democracy. This sad fact was recently flagged up by Economist Intelligence Unit, which pointed to declining faith in democratic institutions as the main factor in downgrading the USA to a ‘flawed democracy’ for the first time. But that was back in the halcyon days of January 2017, and it has been a long year so far.
The first thing that springs to mind is the fact that America has full and free elections which, noise about Russian interference notwithstanding, it does. It also has some of the strongest legal rights protections in the world. These are both things which the government of America manages to provide, with a pretty high degree of success, to the people. However for democracy to really work it requires one thing from the people. It requires faith in democracy.
The current wave of populism throughout the developed world- visible in Brexit, Le Pen and Syria as well as in Trump- is driven by a fundamental lack of faith in politicians and political institutions. Public trust in American institutions has been falling year on year, with 2016 reaching a historic low. Less than 3% of people had ‘A great deal of faith’ in Congress, with 52% having ‘Very little’.These findings were repeated across the political institutions, with on the military, small business and the police having net positive scores. This surely reflects the admirably depoliticized role of the military in American political life, but perhaps does not bode so well for democracy in the event of a national crisis. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s anointed nominee has trustworthiness ratings in the low thirties, putting her beneath Donald Trump all the way up to the election. With this in mind, it is perhaps unsurprising that Trump, even with his sleaziness and scandal, was elected to ‘Drain the Swamp’. And perhaps in Draining the Swamp, The Donald could restore American Democracy to its former glory.
Any hope of that has long since faded, given the Trump administration’s actions in office. Trump is one of the least popular or trusted presidents of all time, and in getting there he has managed to further erode trust in almost every other institution along the way. Within the polarised political environment of America, almost all of his action’s have had the effect of pulling apart the foundations of American governance and democracy. By talking down the intelligence services and firing James Comey he has created a break between the security establishment and the White House. This has led to a widespread culture of leaking, coming both from the security agencies and the White House itself. Trump has openly talked of putting leakers and journalists in jail, further antagonising the news media while openly deriding the idea of judicial independence. Although the American political system is set up with checks and balances, these different parts of government should not be in constant conflict. If this continues public trust will further erode, while effective governance will grind to a halt.
Perhaps the most serious problem, however, is the current state of rule of law in America. The American constitution is robust, and judges are generally independently minded. However, equality under the law does not disappear overnight. Rather, it is chipped away at as norms and standards of decency are slowly eroded. Look no further than the administration’s attitude towards journalists. A Republican candidate recently assaulted a journalist for having the gall to ask him a question, before promptly winning the special election. Can this be disconnected by the rhetoric of Trump, who has encouraged violence towards protesters and has painted the media as an enemy of the people? Meanwhile, American journalists have been put in jail merely for shouting questions at politicians. The Trump administration clearly feels that the American legal system exists primarily to punish the enemies of the government, rather than to protect the people. This is a chilling approach from a democratic government.
The American constitution and system it designed to stop abuses of power by the government, and with the temporary ban on Trump’s anti-Muslim immigration freeze, this has in some way proven true. However it is not the strict word of law which makes a democracy work, it is the expected norms of behaviour. When Trump fired the man in charge of the investigation into his team’s alleged collusion with Russia he did not do anything illegal. When Trump uses executive orders to subvert the scrutiny of Congress (as Obama did) he is not doing anything unconstitutional. When Trump lies on Twitter or spills classified information to Russian officials he is free of legal consequences. But that doesn’t mean that these things are acceptable or good. The legal framework of American democracy can only do so much in the face of absolutely brazen flouting of the norms which underpin a true and meaningful democracy.
There is no better example of this than the naked nepotism and avarice displayed by Trump since taking office. He has carefully divested of his business, albeit in a secretive way, but he has refused to release his tax returns. He has promoted his daughter and her husband to senior if vaguely defined roles despite their continuing business involvement with foreign governments including China and Russia, not to mention their complete lack of policy experience. His team have shamelessly promoted his daughter’s fashion range. All of this is legal and none of it is OK, which is why no other President would have behaved in this way. In a country so philosophically committed to meritocracy, the appearance of an oligarchy should never have been allowed.
The final but most chilling example of America’s faltering commitment to democracy comes in the form of the government’s growing tendency towards authoritarian rhetoric. While there has always been a streak of violence and authoritarianism in American foreign and domestic policy, this has become more overt in the last few months. Trump has promised to ignore the possibility of civilian casualties when fighting ISIL and has stopped even pretending that America cares about the myriad abuses of human rights in the Gulf States. Already there has been a spike in civilian casualties during military operations by the US and its allies. His advisers have been openly impressed by the lack of free protest in these totalitarian countries, and he has spoken admiringly of Rodrigo Duterte’s death squads. Meanwhile, Trump has made no secret of his desire to extend the use of torture and to put journalists in jail. Trump is the leader of a democratic country, but in word and in deed he is not far from being a violent dictator. This lack of commitment to democracy does not begin and end with Trump, however. Pundits have openly called for the summary execution of leakers, and Ted Cruz once promised to find out ‘if sand glows in the dark’.
The world’s biggest democracy is publicly backsliding away from democracy and human rights. This is bad for America, and is worse for the rest of the world. Trump has emboldened strongmen and tyrants fro around the world, from Hungary to Turkey to the Philippines, and it is the people of these countries who will suffer. The American public is largely protected from the worst excesses of the Trump administration, but these issues could go beyond the current government. The erosion of democratic norms is not easily undone, and a disastrous end to the Trump presidency would only further polarize the American public while doing nothing to increase trust in democratic institutions. The rest of the world can only hope that American democracy can bounce back, and that what follows Trump is not something far worse.
