Polarization and the Challenges Facing Diverse Democracies
I recently read two interesting books focused on the causes and potential remedies of our country’s destructive political polarization.
- The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure by Yascha Mounk
- Developmental Politics: How America Can Grow into a Better Version of Itself by Steve McIntosh
Mounk’s book comes at the problem primarily (though not exclusively) from the perspective of ethnic and religious cultural diversity. McIntosh comes from the perspective of more philosophically based value cultures.
Both books are optimistic, in the sense that they see positive ways forward, albeit ways fraught with difficulty and challenge. Mounk spends considerable time warning of three possible negative outcomes should a nation fail to achieve a level of cultural integration: structured anarchy, single-group domination, or fragmentation.
The essential argument of both authors is that the key to diminishing dangerous polarization is cross-cultural acceptance and respect, recognizing the value of a diversity of ideas and values that different cultures (even philosophical ones) bring.
Diverse democracies such as ours should not expect a return to an era of more philosophical or cultural homogeneity. Rather, their arguments go, we must seek to reconcile and integrate cross-cultural values and learn to cooperate and respect our differences. A balance between libertarian and communitarian values is crucial.
It is difficult to imagine that our two warring political parties can pull this off. They have squared off from their respective corners in a death struggle that shows no sign of abating. We should not expect a return to an era where bi-partisan cooperation is possible. That era is gone. It is fantasy to assume it can return.
But there is still hope. There is still a reason to be optimistic. A growing cadre of the American electorate is willing to work together — across ideological and cultural differences — to bring about meaningful change. There is a large and increasing crowd of us who self-identify as independents willing to respect each other’s values and engage in the kind of integrative thinking that Mounk and McIntosh believe are necessary. Mounk’s words about our “great experiment” (a diverse democracy) suggest that this is the way forward.
If the great experiment should succeed, it will not be because of a single politician or activist group. It certainly won’t be because of the smart policy ideas made up by some solitary writer typing at his standing desk. It will, rather, be because millions of people prefer to cooperate than discriminate, listen than shout, and make friends or fall in love than hate or kill.
Our newly forming tribe can expect to impact our electoral politics as we attract those millions that Mounk refers to. Political realignment, however, will require breaking the stranglehold of our two-party politics. We must confront electoral barriers to third-party and independent candidates, a media ethos accustomed to treating politics as a full-contact cage match, and a groupish public worried about wasting their vote. Change will not come easily, but it can come about with a concerted multi-generational effort.
I believe that we should expect that the increasing successes of our venture will cause many of the polarized electorate to rethink their positions and join those of us who “prefer to cooperate than discriminate, listen than shout, and make friends or fall in love than hate or kill.” Join us.
