Democracies can only be stable when the majority of the population believes that it is the only legitimate form of government. Although this seems intuitive, democracy has slowly been eroding. Roberto For and Yascha Mounk say that even though Americans still have emotional attachment to the Constitution, the norms that have kept the system stable are being disregarded. A main influence on this erosion is wealth and prosperity. Politics has become more of a business, with those who can pay their way to the top leading. As mentioned last class, candidates are not chosen freely, but rather are part of a larger system. Candidates who can afford to make campaigns and who have a large social backing can make their way into power, while those who may have better intentions and more “democratic” values are left in the dust. This article touches on how the rich are more likely to be critical of democracy than the poor, yet in majority of the situations, the rich are funding democracy. I don’t quite understand this statement, or maybe it was just a generalization. I think that since the wealthy are more skeptical, they are more willing to pay legislators and politicians in order to influence their decisions. One of the most important sentences in this article was, “Economic elites and narrow interest groups were very influential, while the views of the ordinary citizens and mass based interest groups had virtually no impact.” This reveals that the majority does not rule. Because of this, democracy cannot function properly, as it is led by self interested leaders with their eye on the bank accounts. In order to fix this situation, there needs to be reform between the government and Wall Street\/economy, somehow blocking leaders from being influenced by outside sources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Democracies can only be stable when the majority of the population believes that it is the only legitimate form of government. Although this seems intuitive, democracy has slowly been eroding. Roberto For and Yascha Mounk say that even though Americans … Continue reading