Preserving Our Democracy

 Our Democracy is Unstable

We are in danger of losing our democracy, and Mr. Trump’s indictment provides an opportune moment for us to think about why we are in this situation.  We must think this through because, although it is right that he should be indicted, we should not imagine that convicting him will eliminate the danger to our democracy. The roots of the danger lie deep in the sickness of our political system.

Mr. Trump is a symptom of our democracy’s illness, not its cause. The sickness manifests itself in the anger and resentment of his supporters. He did not create the anger and resentment. He only offered them a way for his supporters to express their feelings in a politically effective way. He also seemed to offer solutions to their problems, and the fact that the solutions were fraudulent does not mean that the anger and resentment were not real or justified.  Why is there so much anger and resentment in our society, and why do they render our democracy unstable?

Democracy and Market Capitalism

In The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism, Martin Wolf argues that liberal, representative democracy and market capitalism depend on each other but that their mutually supportive relationship is fragile. It depends in each country on a tacit bargain that capitalism will deliver an acceptable level of living to all of the country’s citizens. Otherwise, they will see that the system is rigged against them, and they may turn to authoritarian, anti-democratic leaders who promise to remedy their distress. Thus, a capitalist system that fails to live up to the tacit bargain that makes it compatible with democracy will inevitably render that democracy unstable.

What are the elements of an acceptable level of living? Wolf suggests that they include:

• Prosperity
• Opportunity
• Security
• Dignity

Prosperity is a level of national wealth that can provide reasonable incomes to all of its citizens, but national wealth is not enough. There must also be opportunity for everyone who wants and is able to work to obtain a job that provides a reasonable income. Opportunity also means that system must provide real and widespread opportunities for people to move up and increase their incomes. In addition, the system must provide security against economic disasters. People lose their jobs because of events over which they have no control. People fall ill and require medical care. An acceptable level of living in a rich country must include protection against disasters like these. Finally, an acceptable level of living must provide all citizens with a feeling of dignity, a feeling of pride that they can fulfill their responsibilities and look their neighbors and their children in the face.

Our capitalist system provides prosperity but falls very short on the other dimensions of an acceptable life. The shortfall is not just a matter of racial or gender-based disparities. It is true that non-white people in the United States fare worse than white people on average. It is also true that women fare worse than men. These disparities are real, but they are not the topic of this discussion. We are talking about disparities that affect Americans of all races and genders.

Opportunity in the United States is very unequally distributed. There are plenty of opportunities for people with post-secondary educational degrees, but the situation for people with less education is bleak. Rich families can easily provide post-secondary education for their children, while children from less wealthy families must shoulder enormous debts in order to take advantage of such opportunities. Our government could adopt policies to spread opportunity more equitably, but it has not done so.

Security is also very unequally distributed. A corporate executive in the United States who loses his job will often continue to be paid for a whole year (a golden parachute) while he looks for a new position. An ordinary worker will likely get two-weeks’ notice, very limited unemployment benefits and even more limited opportunities for retraining. People who lose their jobs in the United States also lose their health insurance, and if they cannot provide it for themselves, they are vulnerable to financial disasters caused by illness. That is why health care costs are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. We could adopt policies to alleviate the extreme insecurity of our people, but our actions in this area have been weak and inadequate.

Finally, deindustrialization and other changes in our economy have robbed millions of people of their dignity. Millions of men can no longer provide for their families, and millions of single women with children are even worse off. The loss of dignity has led to epidemics of drug addiction and suicide.  The loss of dignity may be the most dangerous failure of all. People deeply resent the loss of dignity, and when they do, they often turn to identities that seem to restore their it. They may for example, feel dignity because they are white or because they are Christians. Leaders like Mr. Trump emerge to ride the wave of identity politics.

Status Anxiety and the Instability of Our Democracy

Our economy’s failure to provide opportunity, security and dignity underlies the anxiety over loss of status that has been widely cited as a basis for white working class resentment in our country. Our society grants high status to people who are “successful” economically. Part of the “American dream” is that each generation in a family can live better than the previous generation. In addition, we say that each person’s success is due to his/her efforts and talents rather than to events or conditions beyond his/her control. In this situation, a narrowing of the opportunities for “success” must inevitably create anxiety in many people.

The lack of security is also a source of status anxiety. Many people know that their social position has been hard won and that it is not secure. Millions of people are a hairsbreadth from financial ruin. An unexpected illness or the loss of a job can ruin them financially, and with the loss of their money goes the loss of the social status that the money provided.

It Didn’t Just Happen

American capitalism’s failure to deliver an adequate level of living to millions of Americans is not due solely to the impersonal workings of the market. The failure is also due to deliberate policy decisions. Americans are insecure because we have chosen not to provide more generous unemployment benefits or retraining opportunities; Americans are insecure because we have chosen not to have a national health care system. Similarly, the lack of equality of opportunity in our country is due partly to the way that we have decided to fund post-secondary education. Our people can see that their distress is due in part to deliberate, political choices that we have made. So, when a leader like Mr. Trump tells them that “elites” have rigged the system against them, they know in their hearts that he is right. They have known it all their lives.

The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

This situation is the basis of Wolf’s “crisis of capitalism,” which is also a crisis of democracy. Fear and anxiety make our democracy unstable. They make it vulnerable to the appeals of demagogues like Mr. Trump. People’s distress leads them to search for scapegoats: foreigners, people of other races, gays, transgender people, “the elite.” There will never be a shortage of would-be leaders to encourage anxious people in their search for scapegoats, and there will never be a shortage of money to support those leaders because citizens who blame foreigners, non-whites or gays for their problems do not blame the extremely wealthy people whose political power prevents us from solving those problems. In effect our inability or unwillingness to make our society more equitable makes our entire political system unstable. Mr. Trump did not create the instability. He has only exploited it.

If we want to have a stable democracy that is immune to demagogic appeals, we must move beyond indicting and convicting Mr. Trump. We must do that, of course, but we must also reform our system of market capitalism. We cannot allow such a large share of our wealth to be concentrated in the hands of a few, very wealthy people. It must be used in a way that allows our people to feel that they have security, dignity and the opportunity to get ahead. Otherwise, convicting Trump will only open the way for the next populist demagogue who wants to overthrow our democracy.