IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v708y2023i1p122-136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Crisis of American Democracy in Historical Context

Author

Listed:
  • Robert C. Lieberman
  • Suzanne Mettler

Abstract

The present is not the only time in American history that American democracy has been at serious risk of backsliding. When we place recent developments in a broader historical and comparative context, we discover that any of four known threats to democracy can weaken it and lead to backsliding. These include political polarization, conflict over who belongs in the political community, high and rising economic inequality, and executive aggrandizement. American democracy has often been fragile, and each past episode of democratic fragility was characterized by some configuration of these four. Now, for the first time in our nation’s history, we face the confluence of all four threats at once. Analyzed through this framework, the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was not a surprise. Although the attempts to overturn the 2020 election failed, the threats remain with us.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert C. Lieberman & Suzanne Mettler, 2023. "The Crisis of American Democracy in Historical Context," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 708(1), pages 122-136, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:708:y:2023:i:1:p:122-136
    DOI: 10.1177/00027162241228969
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00027162241228969
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00027162241228969?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert Mickey, 2022. "Challenges to Subnational Democracy in the United States, Past and Present," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 699(1), pages 118-129, January.
    2. Graham, Matthew H. & Svolik, Milan W., 2020. "Democracy in America? Partisanship, Polarization, and the Robustness of Support for Democracy in the United States," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 114(2), pages 392-409, May.
    3. Jacob S. Hacker & Paul Pierson, 2010. "Winner-Take-All Politics: Public Policy, Political Organization, and the Precipitous Rise of Top Incomes in the United States," Politics & Society, , vol. 38(2), pages 152-204, June.
    4. Lawrence R. Jacobs & Judd Choate, 2022. "Democratic Capacity: Election Administration as Bulwark and Target," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 699(1), pages 22-35, January.
    5. Skowronek, Stephen, 2006. "The Reassociation of Ideas and Purposes: Racism, Liberalism, and the American Political Tradition," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 100(3), pages 385-401, August.
    6. Martin Gilens, 2014. "Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 9836.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ashley Jardina & Robert Mickey, 2022. "White Racial Solidarity and Opposition to American Democracy," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 699(1), pages 79-89, January.
    2. Robert Mickey, 2022. "Challenges to Subnational Democracy in the United States, Past and Present," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 699(1), pages 118-129, January.
    3. Theine, Hendrik, 2019. "The media coverage of wealth and inheritance taxation in Germany," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 290, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    4. Toshkov, Dimiter & Brummel, Lars & Carroll, Brendan & Yesilkagit, Kutsal, 2024. "Public Policy Attitudes and Political Polarization in the Netherlands," OSF Preprints bz6n9, Center for Open Science.
    5. Elsässer, Lea & Hense, Svenja & Schäfer, Armin, 2018. "Government of the people, by the elite, for the rich: Unequal responsiveness in an unlikely case," MPIfG Discussion Paper 18/5, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/279c1p74ui9kcrejshiub9vspv is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Voelkel, Jan G. & Stagnaro, Michael & Chu, James & Pink, Sophia Lerner & Mernyk, Joseph S. & Redekopp, Chrystal & Ghezae, Isaias & Cashman, Matthew & Adjodah, Dhaval & Allen, Levi, 2023. "Megastudy identifying effective interventions to strengthen Americans’ democratic attitudes," OSF Preprints y79u5, Center for Open Science.
    8. Höpner, Martin & Petring, Alexander & Seikel, Daniel & Werner, Benjamin, 2014. "Liberalization policy: An empirical analysis of economic and social interventions in Western democracies," WSI Working Papers 192, The Institute of Economic and Social Research (WSI), Hans Böckler Foundation.
    9. Hecht, Katharina & Savage, Mike & Summers, Kate, 2022. "Why isn’t there more support for progressive taxation of wealth? A sociological contribution to the wider debate," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120793, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Marcella Alsan & Luca Braghieri & Sarah Eichmeyer & Minjeong Joyce Kim & Stefanie Stantcheva & David Y. Yang, 2023. "Civil Liberties in Times of Crisis," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 389-421, October.
    11. Patricia Justino, 2022. "Revisiting the links between economic inequality and political violence: The role of social mobilization," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-19, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Biglan, Anthony & Cody, Christine, 2013. "Integrating the human sciences to evolve effective policies," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(S), pages 152-162.
    13. Larcinese, Valentino & Parmigiani, Alberto, 2023. "Income inequality and campaign contributions: evidence from the Reagan tax cut," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118456, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    14. Eugen Dimant, 2020. "Hate Trumps Love: The Impact of Political Polarization on Social Preferences," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 029, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    15. Hartmann, Felix & Humphreys, Macartan & Geissler, Ferdinand & Klüver, Heike & Giesecke, Johannes, 2023. "Trading Liberties: Estimating COVID-19 Policy Preferences from Conjoint Data," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue First Vie, pages 1-9.
    16. James N. Druckman & Donald P. Green & Shanto Iyengar, 2023. "Does Affective Polarization Contribute to Democratic Backsliding in America?," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 708(1), pages 137-163, July.
    17. Korkut Alp Erturk, 2019. "Intrinsic Moral Hazard," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2019_03, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    18. Fairfield, Tasha, 2013. "Going where the money is: strategies for taxing economic elites in unequal democracies," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 49828, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Brummel, Lars & Toshkov, Dimiter, 2024. "When Should Governments Listen to Social Protests? The Effects of Public Support and Outcome Favorability," OSF Preprints neh5u, Center for Open Science.
    20. Florian Scheuer & Joel Slemrod, 2021. "Taxing Our Wealth," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(1), pages 207-230, Winter.
    21. Andrés César & Guillermo Falcone & Pablo Garriga, 2022. "Robots, Exports and Top Income Inequality: Evidence for the U.S," CEDLAS, Working Papers 0307, CEDLAS, Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:708:y:2023:i:1:p:122-136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.