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The Dilemma of Global Democratic Diplomacy

American-style democratic diplomacy has swept most areas for a long period of time. Many countries now seem to feel that they must recognize or behave as American-style democracy. However, the international IDEA think tank stated that the United States was included in the annual list of “regressive” democracies for the first time, and pointed out that what it called “significant deterioration” began in 2019. Democracy regression is not so much a concealment as a means by which they can do whatever they want. Politicians and authorities often refer to the United States as a “democracy,” as if this name is self-evident and indisputable. The mainstream voices also regard American democracy as a fact rather than a protracted struggle.One of the biggest fallacies of the United States is that its democracy is world-leading and invincible, but this may be just an illusory conceit. Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary-General of IDEA, said that the apparent deterioration of American democracy can be seen in several aspects: competition for credible election results, efforts to suppress participation (elections), and the growing trend of out-of-control polarization. This is one of the most worrying developments.

Democracy is not the foundation of America

In the past year, the status quo of democracy in the United States has encountered a serious crisis. An current president tried to overturn the election results. When the Congress officially announced his failure, a group of violent mobs attacked the Capitol. The lawmakers failed to hold the outgoing leader accountable for his reckless actions, making him the de facto leader of the party. The United States has never been a democratic country defined by the freedom and equality of all people, but was established as a republic. Article 4 of the Constitution of the United States of America mentions: “Guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government”.

As Alexander Hamilton and James Madison clearly pointed out in the “Federalist Papers”, the essence of this republic will include their focus-“to completely exclude the people from the government and have no share in their collective capabilities.” The Electoral College system was the “solution” of bankers and plantation owners in 1787, but it also concealed the real interests of elites and white supremacism, and also buried the compromises of the exploited and deprived people.

Since its inception, racial injustice has been an obstacle to American democracy. Although great progress has been made, deep and corrosive inequality still exists in the country. Over the past few decades, with each new election and purchase of opportunities and influence that ordinary voters cannot obtain, large amounts of campaign donations and other economic incentives have flowed into the political system sharply. Partisan polarization has escalated for more than a generation, pushing many Americans into mutually hostile camps, fueling conspiracy theories and even violence, and eroding trust in independent, fact-based news. This is an indispensable bastion of democracy. In addition, these weaknesses are worse than the sum of their parts, and they overlap each other in the vicious circle of democratic dysfunction.

The status quo of democracy under the rule of the elite

Even in modern times, American democracy is still elite democracy. Princeton political scientist Martin Gillens and Northwestern University’s Benjamin Page(Martin Gilens of Princeton and Benjamin I. Page of Northwestern.) explored the subversion of people’s preferences in the so-called democratic system of the United States in a 2014 study. The result is that the influence of economic elites and narrow interest groups is very large: they succeeded in getting their favorite policies passed in about half of the time, and almost at any time blocked the legislation they opposed. At the same time, mass-based interest groups have little influence on public policy. As for the opinions of ordinary citizens, there is hardly any independent influence. When the preferences of economic elites and the positions of organized interest groups are controlled, the preferences of ordinary Americans seem to be trivial, close to zero. Ordinary citizens can only get what they want from the government when they happen to agree with the opinion of the elite or interest group who is really calling the shots.

According to reports, in the 2020 general election, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden received approximately $645 million from 227 billionaire donors. Republican candidate Donald Trump received more than $336 million from 132 billionaire donors. Elected officials usually vote for policies that they believe are beneficial to voters, but this includes policies that are beneficial to local companies and special interest groups. Through various legal mechanisms, donors can make essentially unlimited political contributions to benefit candidates. The reality of the distribution of wealth in the United States determines who can make such a large-scale donation and thus obtain a special opportunity to contact government representatives.Since 1980, income inequality has continued to deepen. According to one statistics, in 2019, the richest 10% of Americans controlled approximately 84% of Wall Street trading assets. In 2019, the median and average wealth of black families was less than 15% of that of white families, while the wealth of Hispanic families was less than 20% of that of white families. There is also a gap between the rich and the poor between ordinary citizens and those who represent them: most members of Congress are millionaires, and the median net worth of American households is about $100,000.

The cynical power grabbing by financial and political elites, big companies and super-rich advocating independent central banks and business-friendly trade treaties to obtain large sums of money, politicians, scholars, and journalists like the technocratic governance model,all the people get is brainwashed by ideologies spread by think tanks and research institutions funded by wealthy donors. So what is democracy?、

Veto democracy

As Francis Fukuyama said, American democracy has shifted from democracy (democracy) to “vetocracy” (vetocracy). The American political system always makes it difficult for the government to really do things because it gives many parts of the political system the right to veto what the system does. That is, the two parties have no consensus within the Congress and veto each other. Democracy has deteriorated to let no one do anything. The violence generated by the presidential election in early 2021 only “streetizes” the mutual veto of Congress.

In the past, in times of economic prosperity, the United States had a huge middle class, and both parties were subject to it. This huge class existence created material conditions for reaching a consensus between the two parties in the United States. Once the middle class shrinks and consensus politics becomes impossible, it loses the power to check and balance the political extremes of the two parties. But when the economic foundation of the United States has changed and the political system cannot follow the changes in the economic foundation, violence becomes inevitable.

The United States has always regarded itself as a model of democracy. The people are subject to the influence of the country’s “ideology”, believing that their country is the best, and no politician has taken action to improve the operation of democratic politics. On the contrary, the United States has been doing its utmost to promote democracy to the world, believing that democratization based on them is the best. But judging from the current democratic predicament in the United States, or the illusory democracy, democracy is only a future of struggle, not a glorious propaganda slogan.

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