TOW #23 - Article: "Is American Democracy Headed to Extinction?"

As we were studying Plato in class a few weeks ago, many of the questions posed surrounding Crito were about the laws and governance of Athens. Not too long after Plato’s time, the democratic system in place soon fell apart and was replaced by a new system of government. This is what Stein Ringen, retired Oxford University professor and author, believes lies ahead in America’s not-so-distant future. Through historical comparison and citing other experts’ opinions, Ringen argues that because economic inequality has followed through to political inequality, democratic government will quickly become deprived of power and capacity.

He begins by noting that in Athens, democracy only lasted 250 years before being replaced, and here in America we are quickly approaching that same amount of time (currently 238 years of democratic governance). He argues that democracy is not the default, and therefore must be actively nurtured and cared for rather than forgotten once achieved. Ringen claims that, “It’s not enough for governments to simply be democratic; they must deliver or decay.” He then quotes constitutional scholar Anthony King when he describes the decline of effectual governance in Britain’s democracy as going from “order” to “mess” in less than 30 years. Going back to the US, Ringen states that, “The three branches of government are designed to deliver through checks and balances. But balance has become gridlock.” He continues by referring to the conflict between democrats and republicans, specifically in congress how one side essentially blocks anything that the other side attempts to pass. His last point is about the influence of economics on politics. Ringen states, “When money is allowed to transgress from markets, where it belongs, to politics, where it has no business, those who control it gain power to decide who the successful candidates will be — those they wish to fund — and what they can decide once they are in office.” He claims that this leads to corruption and a disconnect between what the people under the government want, and what the endorsing corporations believe will lead to their largest profits. To support this, he quotes Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis when he stated, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”

By quoting fellow experts, Ringen appeals very effectively to ethos through enhancing the credibility of his argument. Additionally, by relating our current situation to that of Athens, the idea that democracy is not everlasting becomes a much more feasible idea to understand for his audience who may otherwise doubt the practicality of a country such as the US having a governmental collapse. Ultimately, I found the article to be very effective through the use of historical comparison and support from experts in the subject.