The recently published Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama looks not only at how liberal democracies develop, but also how they decline. “The fact that a system once was a successful and stable liberal democracy does not mean that it will remain so in perpetuity.”
Fukuyama believes that the U.S. has been in decline for the past few decades. The decline is caused by a number of factors, including the inequality of wealth along with political rules that allow the rich to manipulate the government for their own ends.
Another problem is that interest groups with narrow agendas (read N.R.A. or fracking companies) can exercise a huge influence on governmental policy at the expense of the public good.
Finally, when the government fails to deal with problems, people get disgusted and resist paying taxes, which weakens the government further, and we get into a downward cycle.
Look at what people say about Congress. You have one party trying to enact reasonable policies. The other party, however, has set out to block every initiative. And which one do the people blame from the stalemate? Both of them.
Citizens have good reasons to be cynical. The Supreme Court has managed to subvert democratic government with its decisions on campaign finance. The gerrymandered districts skew government. Voter suppression discourages participation. We are on the downhill slope.
Incidentally, one of the things I learned in graduate school is you don’t have to read the book if you read the reviews. I have not read Political Order and Political Decay, but I did read a great review of it by Sheri Berman of Columbia that was published on Sunday in the Times Book Review section. Thank you, Dr. Berman.
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