By Dan Doss
The United States has long stood as the global bastion of democracy. It is considered by many as one of the oldest democracies in the world, if not the oldest. It spends 2 billion dollars a year on democracy promotion abroad and countless billions more on wars and covert actions that are supposedly to support and aid democracy and freedom around the world (Lawson & Epstein, 2019).
In recent years, however, the US has not been the shining example. Several well-regarded measures of democracy have downgraded the US’s rating, even no longer listing it as a democracy in some cases. In 2016, The Economist Intelligence Unit, an independent business-related group, classified the United States (US) as a “flawed democracy” for the first time (The Economist Intelligence, 2016). The drop happens when a country goes below an at 8 on a 10 point scale. The same year, the Polity Project, an academic democracy measurement scale, dropped the US from a +10 to +8 (on a scale from -10 to +10) because of a new Political Competition coding of “Factional Competition”, meaning that US democracy no longer had perfectly free competition but rather was divided between two factions (Center for Systemic Peace, 2021). The change in coding stemmed from the election of Donald Trump and the polarization surrounding it. Polity even classified the date of the presidential election as the inflection point when the US switched to “Factional Competition” and listed the main factions as supporters of Donald Trump and opposition (Polity5, 2018). In their 2020 report, Polity further dropped the US to a +5 on the 21 point scale, knocking them from a “democracy” to an “anocracy” (Center for Systemic Peace, 2021). In 2020, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance also dropped the US to a “flawed democracy”. Freedom house, one of the most popular measures of democracy, has also dropped the US in score from 89/100 in 2017 to 83/100 in 2021 (Freedom House, 2021).
Similar to Polity’s coding, most of the democratic erosion in the US stems from political polarization and is enhanced by economic inequality and lessening trust in institutions. This is due first to the political system in the US which encourages a false binary on every issue, every person must be either for or against every issue and idea. If you’re not, your vote goes to waste because only parties that have a chance at a majority have a chance at any say at all. Then the advent of the internet and social media allows anyone to connect with anyone else and form their own personal echo chamber where they hear only their own ideas or similar ones. Building on this, the US has some of the highest inequality in the world, ranking well into the bottom 50% and below any other western nation by GINI Coeffcient.
The polarization and democratic erosion has been building in the US for a long time but the turning point, at least in the mind of these measurers of democracy, was the buildup to the 2016 election. Conservatives were used to a country ruled by white men and suddenly had the first black president in office pushing through progressive reforms like the ACA or DACA for 8 years. They had been privileged and when you live your life from a place of privilege, other people getting that same privilege can look like you losing yours.
So when Donald Trump comes around and starts saying what they want to hear; that their livelihood is being stolen, that the progressives are out to get them, that he’s going to clean out of the establishment, that the news media is lying to them, they believe it. They push for him hard and start to see the progressives as the enemy because that’s what they’re told. At the same time, progressives see Donald Trump and all the terrible things he says and does and think that anyone supporting him must also be that same kind of terrible person. So now both sides think the other is the enemy. How can you have a functional democracy when each side thinks of the other as the enemy instead of a person?
Donald Trump rides this wave of backlash against Obama all the way to the White House and once he’s there, just continues to erode democracy in the US. He wages war on the free press as though they are an enemy of the people. He makes 30,000 false claims while sitting in what should be the most trusted seat in the country. He dismisses bureaucrats that don’t align with his narrative. All of this culminates in the 2020 election in which he loses but refuses to accept his loss and encourages his supporters to fight back against the election being stolen. Then his supporters storm the capitol building in an attempt to stop the certification of the election results. This fails and the election remains free and fair and Joe Biden takes office. The US system worked in preventing full-on democratic reversal, this time. Next time, we might not be so lucky. Things are still bad. There are politicians across the spectrum calling for ideas that would be destructive to our democracy. The US needs to accept and understand its democratic backsliding if it’s going to do anything about it.
Hey Dan! It is very frightening to hear that one of the world’s oldest democracies is beginning to chip away. For years, the United States has served as an example of what a democracy should look like to other countries, and it’s downfall could leave a domino effect on the rest of the world’s democracies. I appreciate your emphasis on the United States becoming a “flawed democracy”. Although these words are a bit troublesome to hear, we need to start reacting to this new classification. This term should be frightening to us and should encourage us to do more to prevent democratic erosion from worsening. You mentioned that the United States spends 2 billion dollars a year on democracy promotion. I didn’t realize how much the U.S. spent on this and was very surprised. For a country that spends so much time and money promoting their democracy, one would think that they would focus a lot of energy towards how to save it. As you have mentioned, the 2016 election is likely where the first visible cracks of democratic erosion began to show. Even before Donald Trump began his presidency, society was becoming increasingly divided between the two competing political parties. Voters were strictly “for” or “against” certain leaders and policies, with no in between. Many moderates did not know where to vote in this election because the two parties had become so polarized and it was difficult to find similarities between the candidates. These cracks were definitely there before, but it took an election as intense as this one for them to really show. After the election, when Trump took the presidency, he used the polarization rooted from the election to his own advantage — he used strong rhetoric and attitudes to further divide society. Democrats and Republicans began to think of one another as the enemy, a mindset that is so dangerous to any democracy. Before our “flawed democracy” can begin to fix these cracks, leaders need to focus on being less divisive.
especially liked this question you posed, “how can you have a functional democracy when each side thinks of the other as the enemy instead of a person?” However, I think we need to be having more honest conversations as a nation about the true state of our democracy and the role we as citizens have played and continue to play in its erosion. When we do discuss our democracy, it is usually through the lens of one party saying the other is destroying democracy. We hardly stop to consider just how damaging the polarizing rhetoric by politicians we give into and reward can be. When people like or retweet the tweets of politicians fighting with other politicians on Twitter, we are reinforcing their behavior, just as we are reinforcing polarization when we speak about people who vote differently than us like they are evil. The polarization we are facing now has absolutely been constructed by politicians and has been perpetuated by the two party system, but everyday Americans are not innocent bystanders in this existential problem. We should not vote for politicians who use divisive rhetoric, we should not engage with polarized media, and we should recognize the humanity of our fellow Americans, even if they do not vote for the same people we do. Just because this is the binary that has been created for us does not mean that we have to play by the rules of this game that only benefits politicians.
Great post Dan! I absolutely agree with your analysis of where we are currently at. I especially liked this question you posed, “how can you have a functional democracy when each side thinks of the other as the enemy instead of a person?” However, I think we need to be having more honest conversations as a nation about the true state of our democracy and the role we as citizens have played and continue to play in its erosion. When we do discuss our democracy, it is usually through the lens of one party saying the other is destroying democracy. We hardly stop to consider just how damaging the polarizing rhetoric by politicians we give into and reward can be. When people like or retweet the tweets of politicians fighting with other politicians on Twitter, we are reinforcing their behavior, just as we are reinforcing polarization when we speak about people who vote differently than us like they are evil. The polarization we are facing now has absolutely been constructed by politicians and has been perpetuated by the two party system, but everyday Americans are not innocent bystanders in this existential problem. We should not vote for politicians who use divisive rhetoric, we should not engage with polarized media, and we should recognize the humanity of our fellow Americans, even if they do not vote for the same people we do. Just because this is the binary that has been created for us does not mean that we have to play by the rules of this game that only benefits politicians.
Dan,
This was such an interesting read and perspective regarding the democratic erosion presented in the United States, especially considering how foundational a lot of the elements that are being challenged are to America’s values and people. As you said, a large amount of the effects can be attributed to the increase in polarization present within the nation. My fear is that the acknowledgment of this account may possibly allow for even further polarization as the political environment currently presented within the country is pulled tightly by the competition between the two-party system. I believe villanizing rhetoric can be placed with blame regarding this issue, as presented both by politicians and the general American citizen body as a whole. Individuals are able to do their part in preventing polarization by combatting disinformation and declining rhetoric that is meant to rapidly increase tension.