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In recent years, the decline of democracy in the US and abroad has become conventional wisdom. However, the truth is far less cut and dry. In fact, depending on the dataset, democracy is making great gains by country and by population share. Unfortunately, the narrative of democratic decline is becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. In reaction to democracy’s alleged slump, its self-proclaimed defenders are inadvertently undermining the very thing they wish to preserve. It needs to stop. Sticking with truths, people need to recognize that democracy does not exist per se, it is perceived. It can’t disappear or die. Democracy is a powerful idea that people must use with care in the competition of ideas.
If there is a problem that’s undermining perceptions of democracy, it’s with elites. It’s bad enough that fellow conservatives routinely ape the line, “America is not a democracy, it’s a republic,” while liberal commentators label the White House or 10 Downing Street occupants dictators. Meanwhile, activists are calling on Americans to march in the streets to “take back” their democracy as if it was somehow gone, while white nationalists and populists plot to dismantle it altogether.
That uneasy feeling many have about the current state of politics is the result of a steep decline in the credibility of the public information people consume. Simply put, free people don’t trust their elites. Skepticism is important and healthy, up to a point. When it bubbles up into outright tribalism, violence, and conspiracy theories, the masses are on to something. This is how masses have historically signaled their displeasure with the ruling elite everywhere.
The blessing and the problem is that now, more people than ever before have the ability to express their anger in elections, referenda, and social media virality. And that’s why freedom is in sharp decline during the longest period of democratic expansion in world history. People all around the world are using democracy to vote away their liberty.
The way to solve this problem is not to convince ever larger groups of people that democracy is in decline. Nor is it to forcefully argue that democracy never existed. This only makes things worse. The solution is within elites. They have to come together and figure out how to convince voters of their credibility again. Some populists believe that the solution is to drain the swamp, while other radicals argue for outright revolution. Meanwhile, Washington is still gridlocked. As an institutionalist, I would suggest that we need to make gradual adjustments to our existing institutions that improve the credibility of the people appointed to lead them.
However, I’m not here to craft specific policies for any government. I’m a political scientist, which I say hesitantly, and increasingly regrettably. As my two-year Jeane Kirkpatrick Fellowship at the American Enterprise Institute sadly comes to its inevitable close, I would like to ask my professional colleagues: why has political science failed so abysmally at teaching the general public and our own elites about the basic concept of democracy?
In reaction to democracy’s alleged slump, its self-proclaimed defenders are inadvertently undermining the very thing they wish to preserve. It needs to stop.
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