The Parchment Barrier
The Parchment Barrier
No constitutional engineering can save democracy from citizens who've stopped caring about its preservation.
Authoritarians never mention what happens after the "strong leader" consolidates power.
The corruption that inevitably follows.
The silencing of dissent.
The capture of institutions by cronies.
The erosion of rights for anyone outside the favored group.
But these are the consequences of a populace who have stopped caring enough to participate.
'Most of all, it needs a critical mass of citizens who deeply and genuinely care about democratic values - as lived commitments, not abstract concepts they can hand wave away.'
It is definitely what is needed and it is needed right now, not only in US.
Exactly right. This is a global problem and a global project.
A well written article with a powerful message. I fear though that, for the US at least, it is likely too late. I believe we are past the warning bell as the article suggests and are instead bound now to watch helplessly as the manifestation from years of apathy rolls full steam into the ravine.
I don't know if it's ever entirely too late. Maybe too late to save the existing system. Not too late to build a better one.
The UK makes for a particularly interesting comparison in this regard as it has no (or a much weaker) 'parchment barrier'. It is a sandcastle built on civic democracy.
The UK - pre and post brexit - has been a thoroughly illuminating case study in democratic decay
This was pretty obvious to me but it still needs saying and they said it well.
When one side abandons democracy, and the other upholds it, the rule-breakers gain a tactical advantage. But if both sides abandon it, its extinction becomes inevitable. The democratic recession we're experiencing across the globe stems from this fundamental asymmetry.
Hits the nail on the head