No longer the “Shining City Upon a Hill” as President Reagan proudly claimed in his parting note in 1989, the U.S. has been demoted from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy” – an indictment of the so-called uniqueness of the American project. The demotion occurred in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) uses five categories for its annual report card on democracy. The U.S. performed poorly (see EIU Democracy Index) in two categories: Political Culture (6.25 out of 10), and Functioning of Government (6.43 out of 10).

Political culture comprises political polarization. It includes perceptions of democracy, political leaders (including whether a strong leader is needed to “bypass parliament and elections”), and perceptions of military rule. 32% of Americans subscribe to authoritarianism as the best solution for governance in the U.S. Political culture cannot be separated from the functioning of government category, which includes mistrust of public officials and “public confidence in political parties.” 83% of Americans believe that public officials “don’t care what people like them think.” George Washington despised political parties. Perhaps he sensed something early on. What is clear, however, is that half of Americans do not feel represented by the two-party system. Indeed, 43% of U.S. adults identify as an independent.

What, then, should the doctor prescribe for America’s woes? Could this desire for authoritarianism be the symptom of the failure of the two-party system to represent American voters?

Of course, this erosion of U.S. democracy predates Mr. Trump. We see declines in the U.S. democracy score starting in 2009 (the year after the Great Recession). Some argue that the start of political polarization can be traced back to the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. The good news is that the U.S. scored high on “electoral democracy” indicators including Political Participation (8.89 out of 10), and Electoral Process and Pluralism (9.17 out of 10). This means that most Americans are voting in elections that are legitimate (despite Mr. Trump’s unsuccessful attempt to overturn the results in 2021). There was a record turnout of 66% during the 2020 presidential election; the highest rate in more than a century. This raises the following question: Are elites, such as Donald Trump, driving the so-called “populist wave” in the U.S.; or vice versa? 

Writing for Foreign Affairs, Larry Bartels argues that populist political elites represent xenophobic, conservative minorities that scapegoat immigrants. Press coverage tends to exaggerate the populist threat, Mr. Bartels insists. In the case of the U.S., Mr. Bartels writes, voting patterns reflected cultural anxieties related to race and ethnicity, not economic concerns. Morris Fiorina wrote that polarization is indeed a key issue in the U.S., but that polarization is driven by a two-party system that does not represent a majority of Americans.