![]() In both cases, the solution is the same: more democracy. But institutions that have for centuries excluded Americans rather than represented them must be repaired or reimagined. Where democratic norms are fragile, they must be preserved. That will go a long way in reducing the appeal of extremist political movements.Ĭhristopher Capozzola, professor of history and section head of MIT History:īefore the United States can sustain the health of its democracy, it first has to achieve it. We have underinvested for years in human capital and in infrastructure, leaving many citizens and broad swaths of the country behind. We need both short-term economic relief and long-term investment to ensure ordinary Americans can earn enough to sustain themselves and their families. Populism and authoritarianism appeal, in part, because people are in economic pain. What could garner bipartisan support would be investments in the American economy and in the American worker. But these and other pro-democracy reforms are unlikely given structural barriers to change and lack of bipartisan support. The world of legacy media was one in which the publishers were responsible for what ran under their banner. We at least need to ask the question of how we hold the new media magnates responsible for the content their platforms provide, especially when it threatens democracy itself.Īndrea Campbell, the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science:Įlectoral college reform, a constitutional amendment countering the Citizens United decision, and reductions in barriers to voting would help. While no panacea, we need to take a look at the structure of the internet, which treats content platforms as utilities and not publishers. Until these movements have been effectively disrupted, democracy will continue to be threatened. A healthy democracy requires equality, accommodation, mutual regard among citizens, dissent, and consent.Ĭharles Stewart III, the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science:Īt this particular moment the question is not sustaining the health of American democracy, but restoring it. Illiberal elements have always been present in American society. The recent siege of the Capitol illustrates how authoritarian political entrepreneurs have succeeded in organizing these elements to attack a vision of society that tends toward inclusion and toleration. They too did not want Black voter preferences taken into account. And many white southerners were not supportive of full political equality for their fellow Black southerners. White southern politicians did not want to be accountable to Black voters or to have their political fortunes determined by them. After Congress passed the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in 1870, it was another 95 years before Congress passed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, in response to the civil rights movement.Ī defining feature of “Jim Crow” segregation in the U.S. ![]() To be sure, the path to full democracy has been fiercely contested. Melissa Nobles, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and professor of political science:Īmericans must collectively affirm that democracy is “the only game in town,” and that we are now a multiracial democracy. do to sustain the health of its democracy? MIT News spoke to several of the Institute’s political scientists and historians, and asked them: What must the U.S. democracy, in ways that are both novel and yet also connected to conflicts seen throughout the country’s past. Recent months have been tumultuous for U.S.
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