The decline of effective government throughout most Western democracies poses one of the greatest challenges democracy currently confronts. The importance of effective government receives too little attention in democratic and legal theory, yet the inability to deliver effective government can lead citizens to alienation, distrust, and withdrawal from participation, and worse, to endorse authoritarian leaders who promise to cut through the dysfunctions of democratic governments.
A major reason for this collapse in effective government is that democracies have become more politically fragmented. Political power has been dispersed among many more political parties, organized groups, and even more spontaneous, instantly mobilized non-formal groups. In the proportional-representation systems of Western Europe, power is now divided across many more political parties, including recent, insurgent ones. In the first-past-the-post system of the United States, the main parties are much more internally fragmented. Outside groups, and even individual actors, have far greater power to disrupt and undermine government efforts to forge policy than in the past.
This article identifies the forms political fragmentation now takes across democracies. The article then explores some of the major economic and cultural forces that are fueling this new fragmentation.
As this article emphasizes, the communications revolution also plays a major role in driving today’s political fragmentation. The challenge this revolution poses to democratic government is more profound than the familiar concerns with disinformation, misinformation, offensive speech, and the like. Indeed, the communications revolution undermines the capacity for legitimate, broadly accepted political authority – the authority necessary to be able to govern effectively in democratic systems. Political fragmentation is the result of dissatisfaction with the way democracies have been governing, yet it also makes effective governance all the more difficult. Though there is insufficient appreciation of this new era of political fragmentation, overcoming this fragmentation and delivering effective governance is among the most urgent challenges facing democracies across the West.
Read the full article here.
The decline of effective government throughout most Western democracies poses one of the greatest challenges democracy currently confronts. The importance of effective government receives too little attention in democratic and legal theory, yet the inability to deliver effective government can lead citizens to alienation, distrust, and withdrawal from participation, and worse, to endorse authoritarian leaders who promise to cut through the dysfunctions of democratic governments.
A major reason for this collapse in effective government is that democracies have become more politically fragmented. Political power has been dispersed among many more political parties, organized groups, and even more spontaneous, instantly mobilized non-formal groups. In the proportional-representation systems of Western Europe, power is now divided across many more political parties, including recent, insurgent ones. In the first-past-the-post system of the United States, the main parties are much more internally fragmented. Outside groups, and even individual actors, have far greater power to disrupt and undermine government efforts to forge policy than in the past.
This article identifies the forms political fragmentation now takes across democracies. The article then explores some of the major economic and cultural forces that are fueling this new fragmentation.
As this article emphasizes, the communications revolution also plays a major role in driving today’s political fragmentation. The challenge this revolution poses to democratic government is more profound than the familiar concerns with disinformation, misinformation, offensive speech, and the like. Indeed, the communications revolution undermines the capacity for legitimate, broadly accepted political authority – the authority necessary to be able to govern effectively in democratic systems. Political fragmentation is the result of dissatisfaction with the way democracies have been governing, yet it also makes effective governance all the more difficult. Though there is insufficient appreciation of this new era of political fragmentation, overcoming this fragmentation and delivering effective governance is among the most urgent challenges facing democracies across the West.
Read the full article here.
The decline of effective government throughout most Western democracies poses one of the greatest challenges democracy currently confronts. The importance of effective government receives too little attention in democratic and legal theory, yet the inability to deliver effective government can lead citizens to alienation, distrust, and withdrawal from participation, and worse, to endorse authoritarian leaders who promise to cut through the dysfunctions of democratic governments.
A major reason for this collapse in effective government is that democracies have become more politically fragmented. Political power has been dispersed among many more political parties, organized groups, and even more spontaneous, instantly mobilized non-formal groups. In the proportional-representation systems of Western Europe, power is now divided across many more political parties, including recent, insurgent ones. In the first-past-the-post system of the United States, the main parties are much more internally fragmented. Outside groups, and even individual actors, have far greater power to disrupt and undermine government efforts to forge policy than in the past.
This article identifies the forms political fragmentation now takes across democracies. The article then explores some of the major economic and cultural forces that are fueling this new fragmentation.
As this article emphasizes, the communications revolution also plays a major role in driving today’s political fragmentation. The challenge this revolution poses to democratic government is more profound than the familiar concerns with disinformation, misinformation, offensive speech, and the like. Indeed, the communications revolution undermines the capacity for legitimate, broadly accepted political authority – the authority necessary to be able to govern effectively in democratic systems. Political fragmentation is the result of dissatisfaction with the way democracies have been governing, yet it also makes effective governance all the more difficult. Though there is insufficient appreciation of this new era of political fragmentation, overcoming this fragmentation and delivering effective governance is among the most urgent challenges facing democracies across the West.
Read the full article here.
About the Author
Richard Pildes
Pildes is a founding Faculty Director of the Democracy Project and Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law. He is the nation’s most cited scholar on election law, a leading expert on American government and democratic governance worldwide, co-author of “Electoral Reform in the United States: Reforms for Combatting polarization and extremism,” and editor of “The Future of the Voting Rights Act.”
About the Author
Richard Pildes
Pildes is a founding Faculty Director of the Democracy Project and Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law. He is the nation’s most cited scholar on election law, a leading expert on American government and democratic governance worldwide, co-author of “Electoral Reform in the United States: Reforms for Combatting polarization and extremism,” and editor of “The Future of the Voting Rights Act.”
About the Author
Richard Pildes
Pildes is a founding Faculty Director of the Democracy Project and Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law at NYU School of Law. He is the nation’s most cited scholar on election law, a leading expert on American government and democratic governance worldwide, co-author of “Electoral Reform in the United States: Reforms for Combatting polarization and extremism,” and editor of “The Future of the Voting Rights Act.”
