Mastodawn

US democracy has settled into diminished state, experts find

https://lemmy.world/post/44677489

US democracy has settled into diminished state, experts find - Lemmy.World

The health of American democracy, as measured by those who study it most closely, has settled into a diminished state – stabilizing after a sharp decline last year, but still well below the levels recorded at any point before the start of Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new survey released on Tuesday. The findings, by the nonpartisan democracy-tracking project Bright Line Watch, which surveys hundreds of US scholars at American colleges and universities, suggest that the erosion of norms detected after Trump’s return to the White House last year has hardened into a new baseline. The public also holds a dim view of American democracy, the most recent survey found, but are sharply divided along partisan lines over how well the system is functioning.

Obviously 🙄

It’s not obvious that it has “settled” rather than continuing to decline.

halloejsovs 4d ago

I mean, do you really need an expert opinion to come to this conclusion?

AreaKode 4d ago

Some people, yes. Never ger complacent. Always question what’s actually happening. A lot of people never do…

tburkhol 4d ago

On the one hand, death (or murder) of expertise is one of the things that got us here. On the other, you don’t need an expert to tell you that a car is on fire.

blattrules 4d ago

I have no faith that it’s stabilized.

I think it’s the calm before the storm - if Trump successfully manipulates the midterms the US might be doomed.

If he botches that and becomes a ‘lame duck’ president, there might still be hope.

I don’t think there will be hope worth having if we don’t elect progressive candidates who intend to overthrow the shillionaire broligarchy.

Progressives or not if we even just get the votes to stop ICE and all the wars Trump started on a whim that’s a win.

Oh we definitively need better Democrats.

Just voting for another center-right Democrat as next president is like stopping right before a cliff and then walking on the edge instead of turning back.

chosensilence 4d ago

we never had direct democracy anyway which is the only democracy that should be considered “democracy” when average people think of the term.

more than half of us don’t know what a constitutional republic is.

Is it… A form of democracy wherein the populous uses a selection of elected representatives and a framework of a near immutable law set to guide the representatives in governing for the best interest of all citizens?

GaMEChld 4d ago

Indeed. So clearly you’re in the group that knows. Now the real question is… How big is each group?

Considering the intention of the public education system to improve the understanding of the populous has been degraded to the point where basic civics is not taught and we’re lucky if graduates are even functionally literate, I’d say that people who understand what our government is supposed to be and what it’s supposed to do is fairly small.

And unfortunately, that’s the whole fucking point. A uninformed population is an easily manipulated population.

GaMEChld 2d ago

Yeah. Agreed. Specifically regarding education, I trace the exponential decline back to No Child Left Behind.

Anyone know of another massive attack on education that predates that? Aside from wider systemic corruption, I mean sufficient targeting at Education.

chosensilence 4d ago

yes, but i’m arguing that democracy being applied in other methods is not understood by the average American. they assume it means how i defined it which is why i think it’s the only version are discussing.

Funny enough, this is basic civics that should have been taught in middle school

We’re rapidly becoming an anocracy - sometimes called a ‘semi-democratic’ state.

moonshadow 4d ago

Like in Helldivers or Starship Troopers!

Is that summary right? They’re measuring how “democratic” the USA is by surveying professors at universities?

Isn’t that like surveying CEOs about employee wages and then saying you’re “measuring” employee compensation?

woop_woop 4d ago

Bright Line Watch fielded two recent surveys of political science faculty at American colleges and universities (whom we refer to as “experts”) and representative samples of Americans (whom we refer to as “the public”).

Faculty’s relationship to a university is not the same as a CEOs relationship to a business.

This would be akin to a CEO surveying his engineering team about the state of the company’s engineering

Bluescluestoothpaste 4d ago

I mean where else do you get wage data from? The company payrolls are how they find it and the CEO would be the highest authority in the company that could release that data.

You’re presuming that the CEOs would give honest answers, instead of whatever answer helps them get a bigger bonus.

(Not to mention all of the businesses that don’t actually have a CEO, or the subcontractor shell games they play so cleaning and support staff dont actually work for the company…)

Bluescluestoothpaste 4d ago

Where else would you get the info?

notwhoyouthink 4d ago

This is why it’s extremely important for us to keep pressure up on whomever takes over next to dismantle the grip that the executive branch has over the governing body as a whole.

Regardless of party, the next group (particularly the president and exec branch) will not be incentivized to relinquish power even in the name of maintaining the balance originally held unless we the people demand it, and hold them to account.

How do we do that though? If the people wanted to push this change now there’d be way more action then we e all seen so far (no, I not even sure what action is left to take beyond THAT kind of action). If it isn’t happening now during the worst of it (so far!) then why would anything be pushed harder if the next administration even attempts to show they’re reigning things in a little? People will feel less pressure to act and nothing changes. Again.

Sorry, I’ve been in a doom mode for a few years now about all this and like all of us…I’m just tired man.

notwhoyouthink 4d ago

I hear you, I absolutely do. I wish I had the answer, and I’m tired too.

All I know is that we need to work really hard, and for a really long time.

chortle_tortle 4d ago

I question any expert that has taken until now to realize the death of American democracy.

DarkFuture 4d ago

RIP

Formfiller 3d ago

ramenshaman 3d ago

“Settled”? I dare you to say that again in a month.

trackball_fetish 3d ago

You mean absolutely raped?

lmao, “settled” the say.

If you think the bar can’t go any lower, I’ve got some shocking news for you. The corruption, cronyism, and grifting have only just begun.