#DEMOCRACY 3 CRASHES ON NEW GAME FREE#

Support for political violence is significant. 8 Strong majorities of Republicans agree that “Things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own county,” that “Today, America is in danger of losing its culture and identity,” and that “the American way of life needs to be protected for foreign influences.” Majorities of Democrats reject these propositions. 70% of Republicans believe that America’s culture and way of life have changed for the worse since the 1950s, while 63% of Democrats believe that they have changed for the better. 7 In a period of increasing immigration and religious pluralism, these divisions can become dangerous.ĭisagreements about who is truly American are part of a broader cleavage in American culture. Although there are areas of agreement across partisan and ideological lines, some in our nation hold that to be “truly” American, you must believe in God, identify as Christian, and be born in the United States. 6 And because it has not changed despite growing dysfunction, polarization has led to legislative gridlock, which has generated rising support for unfettered executive action to carry out the people’s will.ĭemocracy means the rule of the people, but Americans do not fully agree about who belongs to the people. Unfortunately, about 6 in 10 Americans do not think that the system can change. There is no party of the status quo in contemporary America: both sides want changes, but they disagree about the direction of change. Given that situation, it is not surprising that public support is very high for fundamental change in our political system to make the system work better. This is troubling because most people value democracy for its fruits, not just its roots. There is near-universal agreement that our system is not working well-in particular, that it is not delivering the results people want. 4īut there’s an important qualification: Americans distinguish sharply between democracy in principle and in practice.

3 However, about 1 in 5 Americans have views that make them at least open to, if not outright supportive of, authoritarianism. The American Publicīased on six high-quality surveys conducted in the last year and a half, support for democracy as the best form of government remains overwhelming and mostly stable across party lines. We examine this question along two key dimensions: public opinion and institutional performance. In the third part, we offer some preliminary thoughts about what steps major private sector actors may undertake as part of their fiduciary responsibilities given the threats to U.S. In the second, we will examine whether democratic failure represents a systemic risk, and conclude that it does. In the first, we assess the question of whether American democracy is backsliding towards failure, and argue that it is. This paper explores the state of American democracy and whether it constitutes a systemic risk that impacts fiduciary duties. 2 Conversely, threats to democracy are threats to the private sector, which is why business leaders and institutional investors cannot afford to remain on the sidelines when such threats emerge.

#DEMOCRACY 3 CRASHES ON NEW GAME FREE#

A free market balanced by a democratically elected, transparent and capable government, and a strong civil society (“an inclusive regime”) yield stable growth rates and greater social welfare. The rule of law and democracy are crucial to capital markets. “I think the decline of democracy is a mortal threat to the legitimacy and health of capitalism.” -Rebecca Henderson, Harvard Business School 1

Democracy 3 crashes on new game