The “house that Madison built” is crumbling. Democracy is eroding at the top and cracks are forming in its foundation, in cities, where the “rubber meets the road.” Nationally, democracy is giving way to autocracy, as dissent is disallowed and punished and Congress loses influence. Locally, loud, angry voices disrupt public meetings, spurring others to disengage.
Over 60% of Americans believe that democracy is not working as it should, with widely divergent opinions about solutions. The failure of democracy to accomplish its basic mission of translating citizen opinions into problem-solving has many grasping for other options, including authoritarian leaders. A recent column by Steven Levitsky et al charges that we have already crossed the threshold into autocracy, given the attacks on free speech at universities, cities, businesses, and the news media.
The representative democracy that James Madison helped design relied largely on legislators to carry out the wishes of the voters. Yet Congress has not been able to effectively address a major issue or even adopt a budget in a timely fashion in years, leading to an increasingly powerful office of the president that rules largely by executive order. Donald Trump is of course the most prolific in this regard, with nearly 200 executive orders in his first 100 days, compared to just 211 in the first two years of his first presidency, though Joe Biden also issued a similar number, 235, in his first two years. Congress’ role during much of the Clinton and Obama years was mostly to stop things from happening, as when Mitch McConnell pledged to make Obama a one-term president.
The increased influence of the executive branch has been enabled by dysfunctional Congress created by increased polarization. With 80-90% of House seats being safe for one party or the other, there is little incentive for elected members to stray from the party line. The caucus and primary systems have also delivered more hard-core partisans who are less likely to work with the other side to develop bipartisan solutions. Gerrymandering, lack of campaign finance limits, and the increased influence of dark money are other contributing factors.
The problem with an all-powerful executive is that one person is less likely to reflect the wide range of opinions of their full constituency, more typically representing the 50+% they won in their election. For all its flaws, the 435 members of Congress and 100 Senators each carry with them the interests of their districts or states. But when Congress no longer functions effectively and the president asserts more influence, national governance becomes a “toggle democracy,” with key policies toggling left or right every four years.
A similar phenomenon exists at the local level in cities that use a mayor-council system rather than a city manager, and particularly in cities with partisan elections like New York and Los Angeles. In these cities, as in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Chicago recently, incumbents are often tossed out as voters are moved by negative campaigns, and cities become toggle democracies as well. In contrast, cities that have followed our Model City Charter and adopted city managers and nonpartisan elections, which account for a majority of U.S. cities, have moderated political upheaval and retained representative democracy by using their city councils to oversee a chief executive.
The cracks we’re seeing in local democracies come partly from the toggle democracy phenomenon and partly from the use of old, rigid forms of civic engagement that are failing to provide for full, meaningful participation of community members. The evidence of these cracks is taking the form of an increase in loud, angry voices from one or the other extreme dominating public meetings, elected officials experiencing increased harassment, and people from the middle disengaging by not coming to meetings, voting less often and not running for office.
As my colleague, Matt Leighninger, has pointed out, the practice of giving residents “three minutes at the microphone” during formal public hearings as their main source of input is outmoded and only makes angry residents angrier. There are many alternatives for hearing from people that provide for more meaningful input and less hostility.
The good news is that many cities have implemented innovative practices to engage the public in civic affairs. Recognizing that challenges like health and public safety cannot be solved by government alone, these cities have shown success in problem-solving by engaging the community not only in designing solutions, but in implementation as well, often including nonprofits, foundations, business and academia as partners.
Each year, the National Civic League recognizes some of these success models through our All-America City Awards, and later this month, we will hold the 76th awards event at which ten new All-America Cities will be designated for their work with the public in addressing environmental sustainability. While this topic area has been one of the massive failures of Congress, hundreds of cities across the country are achieving measurable outcomes to address climate change.
Come join us! You can watch the event online or come in person to witness one of the most uplifting patriotic displays of American ingenuity that you will ever see, and just maybe restore some of your faith in democracy!
