We Must Strengthen Our Democratic Institutions

A peaceful transition of power between elected governments is one of the crucial aspects of representative democracies. Let’s hope that is what the coming weeks and months bring here in the US. As regular readers of Continuations know, I have been concerned about Trump’s various attempts to undermine this process for some time. Some claim that such concern was misguided as they see Trump as simply incompetent – but that strikes me as a problematic claim to make about someone who both had a successful national television show and managed to win a Presidential election.

What strikes me as important though is to examine some of the institutions that are required for a successful democracy. By this I don’t just mean the currently obvious ones, such as Congress itself and the actual voting process, but also mass and social media and most importantly the judiciary and civic education. It is all too easy to have a narrow conception of what democratic institutions are and as a result underinvest in what it really takes to sustain such a complex system, especially during periods of change and risk, such as the transition out of the industrial age.

We are seeing the importance of the judiciary right now. Whenever you have laws (or simply rules), there is a need to adjudicate whether someone has broken the rules. That’s of course also true for rules about democratic processes, such as the counting of ballots. The independence and rigor of the judiciary are crucial so that matters are decided on the basis of evidence and the law rather than that of a political agenda. Here is a good example of one set of lawsuits currently underway in Nevada. It is in this context that the highest court, the US Supreme Court, plays such a critical role because that’s where the most important cases will ultimately wind up.  Some recent decisions there, such as Shelby vs. Holder, raise troubling questions about some the Supreme Court judges’ commitment to a well-functioning democracy (see also cases about gerrymandering). There are no easy answers for what to do about strengthening the judiciary but it starts with everyone looking beyond their favorite issue, on which they would like courts to opine.

This leads directly to the second often underestimated democratic institution is civic education. I grew up mostly in Germany before coming here for college and graduate school but spent one year in a High School in the US (in Rochester, Minnesota). I had a great time there but can firmly say that my civic education experience at John Marshall High School was underwhelming. My government class was taught by the football coach who read from the textbook. That was a fairly stark contrast to the attention on civics that had permeated my education in Germany, where it was woven into many different subjects. Now it is entirely possible that my US experience was the exception but the frequency with which I encounter certain nonsensical claims, such as “the US is a Republic, not a Democracy” makes me wonder. The more people know about not just their own present-day government but the history and complexity of democracy, the better it will be for actually making it work. This will become ever more important as the existing education system struggles and alternative paths, including homeschooling, become ever more popular.

If anyone has efforts they are supporting either with regard to the judiciary or to civic education, I would love to learn about them. While I very much hope that in the end we will transition away peacefully from the Trump era, we badly need to strengthen our democratic institutions across the board. The next attempt at moving the US towards autocratic government will be more competent, more determined and will be able to draw on the anti-democratic narratives that have been gaining ground for many years now.