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IS AMERICAN DEMOCRACY HEADED TO EXTINCTION?
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
By Stein Ringen
April 01, 2014 "Information Clearing House - "Washington Post" --
Behind dysfunctional government, is democracy itself in decay?
It took only 250 years for democracy to disintegrate in ancient
Athens. A wholly new form of government was invented there in which
the people ruled themselves. That constitution proved marvelously
effective. Athens grew in wealth and capacity, saw off the Persian
challenge, established itself as the leading power in the known
world and produced treasures of architecture, philosophy and art that
bedazzle to this day. But when privilege, corruption and mismanagement
took hold, the lights went out.
It would be 2,000 years before democracy was reinvented in the U.S.
Constitution, now as representative democracy. Again, government
by popular consent proved ingenious. The United States grew into
the world’s leading power - economically, culturally and
militarily. In Europe, democracies overtook authoritarian monarchies
and fascist and communist dictatorships. In recent decades,
democracy’s spread has made the remaining autocracies a minority.
The second democratic experiment is approaching 250 years. It has
been as successful as the first. But the lesson from Athens is that
success does not breed success. Democracy is not the default. It is
a form of government that must be created with determination and that
will disintegrate unless nurtured. In the United States and Britain,
democracy is disintegrating when it should be nurtured by leadership.
If the lights go out in the model democracies, they will not stay
on elsewhere.
It’s not enough for governments to simply be democratic;
they must deliver or decay. In Britain, government is increasingly
ineffectual. The constitutional scholar Anthony King has described it
as declining from “order” to “mess” in less
than 30 years. During 10 years of New Labor rule, that proposition
was tested and confirmed. In 1997 a new government was voted in
with a mandate and determination to turn the tide on Thatcherite
inequality. It was given all the parliamentary power a democratic
government could dream of and benefited from 10 years of steady
economic growth. But a strong government was defeated by a weak
system of governance. It delivered nothing of what it intended and
left Britain more unequal than where the previous regime had left off.
The next government, a center-right coalition, has proved itself
equally unable. It was supposed to repair damage from the economic
crisis but has responded with inaction on the causes of crisis, in a
monopolistic financial-services sector, and with a brand of austerity
that protects the privileged at the expense of the poor. Again,
what has transpired is inability rather than ill will. Both these
governments came up against concentrations of economic power that
have become politically unmanageable.
Meanwhile, the health of the U.S. system is even worse than it looks.
The three branches of government are designed to deliver through
checks and balances. But balance has become gridlock, and the United
States is not getting the governance it needs. Here, the link between
inequality and inability is on sharp display. Power has been sucked
out of the constitutional system and usurped by actors such as PACs,
think tanks, media and lobbying organizations.
In the age of mega-expensive politics, candidates depend on sponsors
to fund permanent campaigns. When money is allowed to transgress from
markets, where it belongs, to politics, where it has no business, those
who control it gain power to decide who the successful candidates will
be - those they wish to fund - and what they can decide once they are
in office. Rich supporters get two swings at influencing politics,
one as voters and one as donors. Others have only the vote, a power
that diminishes as political inflation deflates its value. It is a
misunderstanding to think that candidates chase money. It is money
that chases candidates.
In Athens, democracy disintegrated when the rich grew super-rich,
refused to play by the rules and undermined the established system
of government. That is the point that the United States and Britain
have reached.
Nearly a century ago, when capitalist democracy was in a crisis not
unlike the present one, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned:
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in
the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Democracy
weathered that storm for two reasons: It is not inequality as such
that destroys democracy but the more recent combination of inequality
and transgression. Furthermore, democracy was then able to learn from
crisis. The New Deal tempered economic free-for-all, primarily through
the 1933 Banking Act, and gave the smallfolk new social securities.
The lesson from Athens is that success breeds complacency. People,
notably those in privilege, stopped caring and democracy was
neglected. Six years after the global economic crisis, the signs
from the model democracies are that those in privilege are unable to
care and that our systems are unable to learn. The crisis started in
out-of-control financial services industries in the United States and
Britain, but control has not been reasserted. Economic inequality has
followed through to political inequality, and democratic government
is bereft of power and capacity. Brandeis was not wrong; he was ahead
of his time.
Stein Ringen is an emeritus professor at Oxford University and the
author of “Nation of Devils: Democratic Leadership and the
Problem of Obedience.”
[ Part 2.2: "Attached Text" ]
By Stein Ringen
April 01, 2014 "Information Clearing House - "Washington Post" --
Behind dysfunctional government, is democracy itself in decay?
It took only 250 years for democracy to disintegrate in ancient
Athens. A wholly new form of government was invented there in which
the people ruled themselves. That constitution proved marvelously
effective. Athens grew in wealth and capacity, saw off the Persian
challenge, established itself as the leading power in the known
world and produced treasures of architecture, philosophy and art that
bedazzle to this day. But when privilege, corruption and mismanagement
took hold, the lights went out.
It would be 2,000 years before democracy was reinvented in the U.S.
Constitution, now as representative democracy. Again, government
by popular consent proved ingenious. The United States grew into
the world’s leading power - economically, culturally and
militarily. In Europe, democracies overtook authoritarian monarchies
and fascist and communist dictatorships. In recent decades,
democracy’s spread has made the remaining autocracies a minority.
The second democratic experiment is approaching 250 years. It has
been as successful as the first. But the lesson from Athens is that
success does not breed success. Democracy is not the default. It is
a form of government that must be created with determination and that
will disintegrate unless nurtured. In the United States and Britain,
democracy is disintegrating when it should be nurtured by leadership.
If the lights go out in the model democracies, they will not stay
on elsewhere.
It’s not enough for governments to simply be democratic;
they must deliver or decay. In Britain, government is increasingly
ineffectual. The constitutional scholar Anthony King has described it
as declining from “order” to “mess” in less
than 30 years. During 10 years of New Labor rule, that proposition
was tested and confirmed. In 1997 a new government was voted in
with a mandate and determination to turn the tide on Thatcherite
inequality. It was given all the parliamentary power a democratic
government could dream of and benefited from 10 years of steady
economic growth. But a strong government was defeated by a weak
system of governance. It delivered nothing of what it intended and
left Britain more unequal than where the previous regime had left off.
The next government, a center-right coalition, has proved itself
equally unable. It was supposed to repair damage from the economic
crisis but has responded with inaction on the causes of crisis, in a
monopolistic financial-services sector, and with a brand of austerity
that protects the privileged at the expense of the poor. Again,
what has transpired is inability rather than ill will. Both these
governments came up against concentrations of economic power that
have become politically unmanageable.
Meanwhile, the health of the U.S. system is even worse than it looks.
The three branches of government are designed to deliver through
checks and balances. But balance has become gridlock, and the United
States is not getting the governance it needs. Here, the link between
inequality and inability is on sharp display. Power has been sucked
out of the constitutional system and usurped by actors such as PACs,
think tanks, media and lobbying organizations.
In the age of mega-expensive politics, candidates depend on sponsors
to fund permanent campaigns. When money is allowed to transgress from
markets, where it belongs, to politics, where it has no business, those
who control it gain power to decide who the successful candidates will
be - those they wish to fund - and what they can decide once they are
in office. Rich supporters get two swings at influencing politics,
one as voters and one as donors. Others have only the vote, a power
that diminishes as political inflation deflates its value. It is a
misunderstanding to think that candidates chase money. It is money
that chases candidates.
In Athens, democracy disintegrated when the rich grew super-rich,
refused to play by the rules and undermined the established system
of government. That is the point that the United States and Britain
have reached.
Nearly a century ago, when capitalist democracy was in a crisis not
unlike the present one, Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis warned:
“We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in
the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” Democracy
weathered that storm for two reasons: It is not inequality as such
that destroys democracy but the more recent combination of inequality
and transgression. Furthermore, democracy was then able to learn from
crisis. The New Deal tempered economic free-for-all, primarily through
the 1933 Banking Act, and gave the smallfolk new social securities.
The lesson from Athens is that success breeds complacency. People,
notably those in privilege, stopped caring and democracy was
neglected. Six years after the global economic crisis, the signs
from the model democracies are that those in privilege are unable to
care and that our systems are unable to learn. The crisis started in
out-of-control financial services industries in the United States and
Britain, but control has not been reasserted. Economic inequality has
followed through to political inequality, and democratic government
is bereft of power and capacity. Brandeis was not wrong; he was ahead
of his time.
Stein Ringen is an emeritus professor at Oxford University and the
author of “Nation of Devils: Democratic Leadership and the
Problem of Obedience.”