Re-stabilizing US Democracy – Now.

Recent weeks proved something that most of us had already known for a long time: Recently, US democracy is historically unparalleled and unstable. This is partly due to the ongoing politics, including the campaign and the attack on Trump. However, it also has systematically and socially rooted reasons contributing to the system’s instability. To put a label on it, it is the uprising populism that gnawed through politics and policies, through the judiciary, and into society. Here are three actions that can be taken right now to counter the harms of populism and stabilize US democracy again.

Several scholars, including myself, have discussed the phenomenon of populism. Its causes are controversial, and its circumference is blurry, but for certain, its effects are harming the foundation of liberal democracy, evident in the US. What can be done to protect this liberal democratic foundation from populist erosion? I argue that the most efficient and only right solution is eliminating the breeding ground for populism in three stages: 1) The Systematic Constitutional Level, 2) the Level of Political Execution, and 3) the Policy Level.

1. The Systematic Constitutional Level:

Updated Liberal Democratic Setting in the Constitution

If we want to limit the potential of populism, we first must ensure that liberal democratic principles are in check. Thus, populists have little to no points of attack to criticize the liberal democratic system itself. To guarantee an almost flawless liberal democratic system, its legal foundation, the Constitution, must be in total harmony with liberal democratic standards. This requirement is fulfilled chiefly for many European democracies (yes, no constitution is perfect, but due to the lessons learned from the past, I asses that many European constitutions, e.g., the German Constitution, are very close to it). In contrast, in the case of the US, the Constitution strongly needs to catch up. As one of the oldest constitutional documents in the history of humankind, it unfortunately still represents values and enforces mechanisms based on the reality of a past time. Thus, today’s US Constitution does not account for contemporary domestic power relations internally between the US States nor the international power relations of the 20th and 21st centuries. Neither does it justice to racial and gender equality achieved over the past century. Nor does it offer an effectively fair election process. Nor does it satisfy the needs and requests or necessary tools to address challenges faced by people in the 21st century.

Fortunately, the US Constitution was strong enough to safeguard American democracy during the first Trump presidency (yes, the level of liberal democracy has incrementally diminished during his Presidency and ended with what political scientists categorize as a coup d’état, but eventually, US democracy is still alive, and Trump was democratically elected out of power). However, it still could not initially prevent the election of a powerful man who disrespects liberal democratic rules and basic American values and even tries to shutter them ultimately. And as we can witness, it also can’t prevent his re-election, the election of a convicted criminal for President. Therefore, the US needs an urgent update on its Constitution to end the self-serving mechanisms that keep certain individuals and parties in power but harm the American people. A prerequisite for the constitutional update is an independent and liberally democratic Supreme Court. In its current Constitution, the Supreme Court is far away from such an independent and democratic performance. But as newsrooms have publicized recently, re-establishing the Supreme Court’s independence is one of Biden’s last priorities before he leaves the office.

Achieving change in the US Constitution might be challenging, but it is not impossible. Once the Democrats and a majority of democratic Republicans recognize and acknowledge the urgency and endangerment of American democracy and work bipartisan on maintaining it, I am optimistic that political majorities for constitutional evolution can be found.

2. The Level of Political Execution:

Political Execution in Daily Politics and Among Citizens

Another change must take place in the level of political execution and the way that politics are conducted daily. This includes the behavior and objectives of politicians, the media, and every organization and institution involved in or connected to politics. Collectively, we must contradict the narrative of populism and correct the propaganda that populists spread in our societies. No, the middle-class workers in the rustbelt did not lose their jobs due to more immigrants from Mexico. However, globalization and industrial progress have changed the economy’s structure, reallocated profits, and created winners and losers, while past governments have failed to keep up with the processes and failed to implement policies that compensate for losses. And no, the EU apparatus is not wasting tax money on regulations that complicate life in Europe. However, measured by the employee-citizen ratio, it works more efficiently than every single EU member country administration. It is the most successful institution in contemporary history in finding compromises for problems faced by 27 wildly diverse member states. When we hear populism, we should quit shying away from it but correct the narrative according to facts and liberal-democratic standards.

This narrative correction is most efficient when including the citizens because the citizens are the ones who decide on the election ballots if populists become even more powerful to erode democracies.

I also put the responsibility on myself and my peers. In our bubble of political scientists, liberal-democratic politicians, diplomats, and activists, there is much knowledge about the subliminal strategies of populism and a broad consensus that it harms our democratic systems and the peaceful life founded on them in the long run. As a next step, we must leave our ivory tower, present our understanding to the non-experts, and convince them of populism’s dangers to our systems. We must promote political exchange between the average citizens who do not dedicate their lives to politics and diplomacy. And we must ensure that the communication between citizens and their representatives is not just a marketing campaign a few weeks before upcoming elections but a substantial, ongoing flow of communication between both sides, dealing with the political needs of citizens and the political options to address those.

More wholehearted political campaigns can help, but ultimately, it is on every single one of us to foster this conversation.

3. The Policy Level:

Policies to Reduce Social and Economic Division

Finally, politics can do much more to prevent populism’s rise by eliminating the social and economic divisions those populist narratives target. This is especially true for the US, which is the most socially and economically unequal and thus divided nation among Western countries. Policies implementing basic welfare standards, like facilitating better and higher education for everyone and offering a non-profit healthcare system that prevents people from the social and economic abyss in the case of illness, can generate a much more stable economy and a more benevolent, less competitive, and more solidary society. Such a society will finally be less prone to the dividing forces of a populist agenda.

Realistically speaking, these are major shifts in the democratic system. These changes won’t happen overnight. They need lots of commitment, bipartisan support, and time to unfold their effects. However, with Biden’s decision to drop his candidacy, I see a unique opportunity. Not worrying about re-election equips him with the power to push these changes through. He has nothing to lose and can focus his last few months of Presidency on nothing else but establishing these unpopular but urgently needed systematic changes in the judiciary, in the policies, and the narrative among citizens.

The proposed list of measures to protect liberal democracy from populism is long and contains enormous policy action. However, I am convinced that if we, as democratic citizens, politicians, and activists, find the courage to initiate these changes today, we will witness less populist influence and have much more salient, equal, safer, and people-serving democratic systems only a decade from now.