Have the Americans lost the sense of democracy?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Americans have not lost their attachment to democracy, says an exclusive survey.
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In April 2017, the International Panel on Social Progress conducted a survey on an Internet sample, provided by Qualtrics , of 1,041 individuals representative of the age and race composition of the adult population in the United States.
In a 2016 article in the Journal of Democracy , authors Roberto Stefan Foa and Yascha Mounk find evidence of democratic “deconsolidation” in the United States (and some European countries) in recent decades, in particular in the declining attachment to democratic institutions among younger Americans. Is democracy really dying in the American mind?
The meaning of democracy
The survey first asked about the meaning of democracy. Is it simply about choosing leaders in free elections as Joseph Schumpeter argued or, more ambitiously, about everyone participating in decisions, an idea closer to the polyarchy concept of Yale political scientist Robert Dahl?
A further question is about how to share power among the citizens. Democracy is generally understood in terms of an arithmetic equality among voters, but it is sometimes practiced in a way that gives more influence to those who are more affected by the decision – for example, only local inhabitants vote in local elections, and shareholders vote in proportion to their stock holdings.
This approach is endorsed by a small fraction of the US population, and here again young respondents are more likely to support it, as well as the politically moderate and the highly religious. Thus, on the meaning of democracy, the young do not appear cynical and despondent, and favor approaches that are more participatory.
How democracy works
Going to more concrete questions about at how democracy works in the United States, respondents consider that ordinary citizens hold much less power than politicians, lobbies and special-interest groups. Note that the latter include a range of civil-society organizations, including businesses, labor, and NGOs.
Non-whites are less in favor of citizen power and less opposed to lobbies and special interests than those who are white. Education is clearly associated with being more in favor of transferring power to the citizens. Political moderates and progressives, as well as the moderately and highly religious respondents, are less wary of politicians and special interests than the conservatives and the less religious.
When asked about local politics, the respondents provide similar answers about the power distribution between politicians, lobbies and citizens.
About redistributing power
Those polled were also asked if they felt that the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans as a group had more or less power in politics than the rest of the population. On average, they responded that on a scale between 0 (the top 1 percent have full control) and 100 (the population has full control), the current situation is at 40, and should ideally be moved to 58 (more citizen control). This is substantial, but nevertheless may seem a relatively moderate view about the power shift that is needed in favor of the bottom 99 percent of society in terms of wealth.
The educated and the least religious respondents see the top 1 percent as more powerful than other respondents. The most in favor of redistributing power away from the 1 percent are the progressives and the least religious respondents.
Among respondents, political moderates and progressives are consistently favor of greater democracy in these institutions than conservatives. The middle-aged are less likely to support more democracy within families, but no difference appears with gender or household size. Similarly, the middle-aged are less supportive of greater democracy in firms and armies, while religious respondents are more supportive. Women are less in favor of more democracy in schools than men, while support for democracy in government rises with the level of respondents’ education. Younger and more religious respondents (including the very religious) support greater levels of democracy in religious institutions, while lower-income repondents are less supportive.
The support for democracy expressed by religious respondents is noteworthy.
Gender and parental power
The survey also included more specific questions about the family and the business company. Let us start with the family and the distribution of power between parents and children. On a scale between 0 (parents have full control) and 100 (children have full control), the average response is 42 for the actual situation in American families, and 39 for the ideal level. This is less than 50 (equal power), but nevertheless close, and no significant change is seen as needed by the respondents on average.
What about gender? On a scale between 0 (male in full control) and 100 (female in full control), the actual situation is characterized on average as 49 and the ideal as 53 (women having slightly more control). There is no significant difference in responses by gender, but the high income, the very religious and the large households have a significantly higher ideal (i.e., greater female power), whereas the less educated and the very conservative have a lower ideal value. All in all, the picture of a quite democratic family emerges from this survey. Only 18% of the respondents (the proportion is the same among men and women) have an ideal value lower than 50, and the main reasons they provide primarily invoke the tradition and the belief that children need a strong father.
Power at work
Democracy remains an ideal
Overall, this survey paints a picture of an American population that is firmly in favor of democracy, somewhat worried about insufficient power for ordinary citizens in the country and in local politics, and for workers in business companies.
The young, far from being despondent about democracy in general, are not more worried about politicians and special interests than the rest of the population, and are more in favor of extending democracy to companies and even the army and the church. They have a more participatory view of democracy, and are less attached to the traditional restrictive view of democracy in terms of political competition and equal voting rights. So, yes, the young may not be very firm supporters of classical political institutions, but this fact may hide a promise for the outlook of advancing the general ideal of democracy in society more broadly.
The absence of gender differences in opinions, even regarding male-female power in the family, is quite surprising and suggests an impressive convergence, in the #Me Too era, toward a very egalitarian conception of gender control.
Overall, democracy appears more strongly and consistently supported by the progressives than the conservatives, except as far as ordinary citizens’ power is concerned. Interestingly, those who are more religious hold a participatory view of democracy and are often in favor of redistributing power and extending democracy, even in the family and in the church. If you want to promote democracy and participation, think of a coalition gathering the young, the progressives and the religious people.
Marc Fleurbaey is Professor in Economics and Humanistic Studies, Princeton University
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Data about democracy.
We never have enough...
The United States has never been a democracy....
from: ....
"The United States is, indeed, a republic, not a democracy. Accurately defined, a democracy is a form of government in which the people decide policy matters directly--through town hall meetings or by voting on ballot initiatives and referendums. A republic, on the other hand, is a system in which the people choose representatives who, in turn, make policy decisions on their behalf. The Framers of the Constitution were altogether fearful of pure democracy. Everything they read and studied taught them that pure democracies "have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths" ( Federalist No. 10 )."
Please red the seed. Thank you.
I did. It appears some want a democracy instead of a representative republic. Why did you post the article and what is your opinion of it?
Does not appear in the seed please read the seed, and Comment with something pertinent... or go away. Thank you.
There has only been one true Democracy and that was Ancient Athens, which ended up becoming a dictatorship. Too many people conflate Democracy with the US form of government, which is a derivative of the Roman Republic's government. The US form of government is unique; because the original intent was to spread the power as evenly as possible between the people and the state governments. Sadly, with the passage of the 17th Amendment, the people gained all the power at the Federal level and gave it to the politicians. There should be no members of Congress that have served more than 2 contiguous terms (or 12 years); because that changes it from a Representative government to a Feudal government as people like John McCain, Chuck Schumer, Peter DeFazio etc all feel entitled to their seats and that the people serve them instead of the other way around.
Well... aside from the right to vote being limited to a very narrow sliver of the population... similar to what many would like to see for the USA...
So, you want people from California voting in Florida's elections? Because, once you let non-citizens vote (while state and Federal offices are on the same ballot), you will have to let non-residents vote in your state and local elections just to be fair. So, if you want to be truly fair, press Congress and State legislatures to pass laws making local voting on a separate ballot, THEN after that is law allow non-citizens to vote in local elections.
locked.
due to seeder's suspension, he obviously cannot moderate or participate.
The storm has passed...
The Umpire has called an end to the rain-delay. The game may begin again.