They are pouring time and money into getting more people to vote, particularly minorities and swing voters, to win back democracy. Other organizations and philanthropists already understand the danger America is in. Moreover, the country’s age means that much of what are presumed to be laws and institutions are, in fact, simply norms. Many of the laws that form institutional guardrails were written poorly in the aftermath of the Civil War, with loopholes that are easily challenged given a lack of precedent. democracy provides resilience-but Americans should not expect too much from the country’s historical strength. Rachel Kleinfeld is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program, where she focuses on issues of rule of law, security, and governance in democracies experiencing polarization, violence, and other governance problems. Their destructions of their own democracies have been supported by pluralities or majorities of their citizenries, whose polarization leads them to back policies that harm democracy to ensure their side prevails. However, since the end of the Cold War, most democratic failure globally has been caused by elected governments using legal methods, such as gerrymandering and technical rule changes, to derail democracy. Many Americans view this moment with concern, but their worry is measured: America’s system is creaky, but the world’s oldest democracy has strong institutions and will pull through. Without such momentum, the country faces a democratic setback potentially as serious as the ones already occurring in India and Hungary (both now ranked only “partially free” by Freedom House) and the nearly one-hundred-year reversal that occurred following America’s Reconstruction era. The moment requires a step-change in strategy and support. DemocracyĪmerican democracy is at a dangerous inflection point. The Need: A Massive Infusion of Strategic Support for U.S.
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