This book argues that American democracy is in crisis. The economic system is slowly subjecting Americans of nearly all income levels and backgrounds to enormous amounts of stress. The United States lacks the state capacity required to alleviate this stress, and politicians increasingly find that if they promise to solve economic problems, they are likely to disappoint voters. Instead, they encourage voters to blame each other. The crisis cannot be solved, the economy cannot be set right, and democracy cannot be saved. But American democracy cannot be killed, either. Americans can’t imagine any compelling alternative political systems. And so, American democracy continues on, in a deeply unsatisfying way. Americans invent ever-more elaborate coping mechanisms in a desperate bid to go on. But it becomes increasingly clear that the way is shut. The American political system was made by those who are dead, and the dead keep it.
Author(s): Benjamin Studebaker
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 210
City: Cham
Contents
List of Tables
1 The Unsolvable Problem
Introduction
The Competitive Global Economy and Its Consequences
The Workers
The Professionals
The Employers
The Trouble with Reforms
The Trouble with Revolution
The Resistance to Giving Up
References
2 False Hope
The Left’s False Start
The Left as a Hope Industry
The Right’s Rabbit Hole
The Right’s Obsession with Culture
The Center’s Quest for Better Gatekeeping
The Inadequacies of Joe Biden
References
3 Chronic Crisis
Two Types of Fearmongering, One Theory of Crisis
Problems with Koselleck’s Theory
The Chronic Legitimacy Crisis: An Alternative Model
Perfect Legitimacy
Full Legitimacy
Minimal Legitimacy
Liminal Legitimacy
Chronic Crises Occur When We Get Stuck in Minimal Legitimacy
Why Purification Reforms Are Confused with Authoritarianism
Fear of Authoritarian Reforms Makes Gridlock Worse, Encouraging Localism
References
4 Dream Eating Democracy
Liberty
Equality
Group Equity
Representation
Obstacles to Restoring Legitimacy by Dream Eating
References
5 No Escape
The Path to Despair
Striving, Settling, and Sinking
Politics Without Politics
Faith
Family
Fandoms
Futurism
The American Subaltern
The Guys in the Hot Air Balloons
References
6 What If This Book Is Wrong?
Political Prospects for Would-Be Reformers
Intermediary Steps
Economic Endgames
Alternatives to Democracy
The Paths of the Dead
Epilogue
References
Index
