Trump Against American Democracy Keeping

Trump against American democracy keeping

The authors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt give us clear examples of how democracies over time deteriorate more and more, by the behaviors of whom government and suggests that an authoritarian regime is not as bad as it seems is unable to solve problems.

Most of the bankruptcy of democracies have not only been military, but at present, it begins at the polls; The authors review the case of the United States since with current President Donald Trump is in a state of deterioration.

In the first place it puts us to fateful alliances, which are of authoritarian figures to power, because in any democracy politicians face challenges such as: economic crisis, increasing public discontent and the electoral decline of the main parties.The clearest examples is the German and the Italian experience, the most common characteristics of the two were that both leaders won the people for charismatic and because they challenge the old order that had already been previously established.

All democracies have a potential demagogue, although some political leaders take necessary measures to keep authoritarian people from power. The performance of elites is also important and the role played by political parties is much more important since they are guardians of democracy. To keep people with authoritarian dyes away from power, they must first be identified either by their history or by four recommendations that Juan Linz points to us,

• Reject the rules of democratic game.
• Denies the legitimacy of its opponents
• Tolerate or encourage violence
• Indicates his will to restrict civil liberties of his opponents and even censors the media.

If at least it meets a step, it is a cause of concern but there is also no concrete way to move them away since candidates cannot be prohibited from running or disappearing a party.

Safeguard of democracy

Demagogues in the United States there are plenty. The term "smoke rooms" was a method to choose candidates for different positions, they were chosen by a small group that did not give account to anyone who did not represent the women or the minority.The Constitution of 1787, established to safeguard the institutions, the presidential system of the world and its founding parents had the concern for:

• Choose a president who reflects the will of the people
• With the help of the compromisaries of the Electoral College, it will be chosen with greater security, so that in this way it had the necessary characteristics for the position.
• Although it showed certain defects such as:
• I didn’t say how to select candidates
• He did not mention the political parties, with the passing of time the political parties became what their candidates elected so that they had to move dangerous figures from the presidency.

Over time the nominations system was needed since the political elites did not appear a very important role, but they had to ensure the loyalty of the candidates for the party (although the elites financed them).

The great republican abdication.

Donald Trump announces his candidacy on June 1, 2015 with characteristics very similar to those of Henry Ford, a rich, influential man and also with extremist opinions. Unlike Ford’s candidacy, there was now a greater accessibility to the presidency, even if elective charges had not been held before after 1972 the celebrities can skip the "invisible primary".

Trump had to compete with another 16 opponents although he did not seem to receive the support of the elites since he had registered different parties in addition to the Republican, he also had to face some party members who put his candidacy, there was a great uncertainty regarding to that he had not held a similar position so it was difficult to imagine when you came to the presidency.

The subversion of democracy and the keeping of democracy

Despite the differences between Mussolini, Hitler and Chávez the three had a similarity in their rise to power. This is a process that begins with words and demagogues attack their critics with severe and provoking terms treating them as enemies. Many of them ended up crossing the line, which separated the words from the action and that polarizes goes to society and generated distrust.

For the new candidates who came to politics, it was unbearable in each of the cases, since the dictators settled control among government referees by providing a legal benefit against their opponents, otherwise we should weaken the opponents by other means , among them the jail.

Those who intend to take power will create reforms in the Constitution or in the electoral system, these reforms will be carried out under the pretext of doing a public good, when their true interest is to favor the rulers, in this way democracy dies at hands of great irony since the supposed protection justifies it. The company tolerates the measures because they fear for their own security, in the case of the United States citizens renounce certain civil liberties, but in the surveys that were done they threw that they felt safe in that way since it stopped terrorism.

The unwritten rules of American politics

Trump against the stages of democracy

The president of the United States enters power following the same patron of Hugo Chávez or Alberto Fujimori, qualifies the media as the enemy of the people and threatens to stop financing the important cities. That during the 100 days the press had been very cruel, amid rumors about the link with Russia in the elections, its dismissal was being proposed.

Trump used the three authoritarian mandates strategies:

• Passed hostility towards his referees: the organizations responsible for applying the law, intelligence agencies (CIA, FBI and National Security)
• Marginalize key actors of the political system: the enemy of the people, they are supposedly the media.
• Change the rules of the game: with the implementation of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Electoral Integrity, which tries to remove social classes from the Democratic vote from participation.

The destiny of democracy during Trump’s mandate will depend on different factors:

• Republican leadership behavior, democratic institutions depend essentially on the will of government parties to defend them, if the case also of their representatives.
• Containment. Republicans can mark dividing lines in the face of behaviors that they consider risky.
• Congressmen could raise a possible dismissal of the president, although he would have political costs for all.
• Public, national and international opinion.
• Crises especially security reversed in support of the government.

Trump infringed democratic safety standards by publicly questioning the legitimacy of the elections, also violated the rules of electoral reconciliation by continuing to attack Hillary Clinton and others not written: a president does not attack his predecessor. No president had breached so many rules not written in such a short time, I challenge essential rules for the health of political life.

How to save democracy

There is nothing in constitutions or culture that immunize against democratic bankruptcy. There is great deep polarization from the end of the reconstruction after the secession war, which triggers the epidemic of violation of the norms that currently challenge democracy. There is the perception that democracy is in recoil worldwide, Venezuela, Thailand, Turkey ..

Trump’s rise may represent a challenge to world democracy, the United States seems to have abandoned the role of promoter of democracy for the first time since the Cold War. Three future scenarios are anticipated:

• Trump fails in politics or is not chosen or is forced to resign
• Trump continues to win, once he will use hard constitutional tactics.
• More polarization and an institutional war. A democracy without guardians.

Democracy does not work if the norms are forgotten. Montesquieu and more founding parents were wrong to think that the Constitution solved the problems. The idea that Democrats and Republicans had to fight is wrong. The opposition to Trump should be firm, but destined to preserve instead of violating democratic norms, and another opposition should focus on Congress, courts and elections.