Whither to American Democracy ?
– N K Tripathi
United States of America is the oldest democracy with a lofty constitution. Economically the richest for over 150 years and militarily the strongest for a century in the world, America was also an ideal for lawfully following the separation of powers of the different organs of the state, bound by constitutional checks and balances. America is now drifting from its stated position.
The devastating speed of executive orders and utterances of the President Trump has shaken the trade and economy of the world. For the first time in its history, America is siding with an open aggressor and changing its strategic philosophy. However, it is not the international turmoils which are of concern to American state, but the internal cracks in the system. The beginning of an autocratic state and repression of dissent have started. Farid Zakaria has expressed apprehension that the President Trump may even defy the courts.
Steven Levitsky, a professor of the department of government at Harvard and the co-author of the influential 2018 book “How Democracies Die.” is a keen watcher of America’s internal situation. He says, “When you see important societal actors — be it university presidents, media outlets, C.E.O.s, mayors, governors — changing their behavior in order to avoid the wrath of the government, that’s a sign that we’ve crossed the line into some form of authoritarianism”.
United States of America had been preaching, sometimes with ulterior motives, and telling other democracies their faults. Probably America will not be left with even proverbial fig leaf to do so in future.
