Keeping Your Faith in Democracy

Democracy Newsletter: November 2024

By Steve Zolno

No matter the outcome of this election, democracy can be preserved only if we maintain faith in its vision.
 
This means a continued belief in the value of every human being, even when others lose that faith. It means maintaining the essential principle of human dignity — that all are created equal — even when it seems that some are able to value themselves only by diminishing others.
 
You and I are not the labels we or others put on us. Our judgments do not reflect the essence of people. When we judge others, we experience judgment. When we hate others, we bring ourselves hate. The alternative is recognizing the essential value of every human being. As we do this, we experience our own value. Democracy becomes actualized as we bring that idea into our institutions and everyday lives.
 
This principle is the basis of economic prosperity that affects those at all levels of society, as recognized by the recently awarded 2024 Nobel Prize in economics. According to Daron Acemoglu, one of the three Nobel Laureates who shared that prize: “I think broadly speaking the work that we have done favors democracy.… Democracy is not a panacea. … There’re many examples in world history of societies that do well for 40, 50 years.… What you see is that’s never sustainable.… The Soviet Union did well for 50 or 60 years.”

Photo by Edgar Colomba via Pexels

Countries that make the transition to an “inclusive society” create viable economies, added James A. Robinson, another of the recipients: “The United States … was a country of slavery, of privilege, where women were not allowed to take part in the economy or vote.… Every country that is currently relatively inclusive and open made that transition.”
 
Acemoglu expressed worry that democratic institutions in the United States and Europe were losing support from the population: “Support for democracy is at an all-time low, especially in the U.S., but also in Greece and in the UK and France.… They think democracy hasn’t delivered what it promised.”
 
Added Robinson, “Clearly, you had an attack on inclusive institutions in this country.… You had a presidential candidate who denied that he lost the last election, [who] rejected the democratic rule of the citizens.… Of course, I’m worried. I’m a concerned citizen.”
 
The third recipient, Simon Johnson, remarked, “A lot of people who were previously in the middle class were hit very hard by the combination of globalization, automation, the decline of trade unions, and a sort of shift more broadly in corporate philosophy.… So instead of workers being a resource to be developed, which they were in the 19th and early 20th century, they became a cost to be minimized … that squeezed the middle class.
 
“We have, as a country, failed to deliver in recent decades on what we were previously very good at, which was sharing prosperity. A key for the future is how societies manage new technologies such as artificial intelligence.… AI could either empower people with a lot of education, make them more highly skilled, enable them to do more tasks and get more pay; or it could be another massive wave of automation that pushes the remnants of the middle down to the bottom. And then, yes, you’re not going to like the political outcomes.”*
 
Essentially, their research shows that commitment to democracy by a society — where there is less unrest and rivalry between those at different economic levels — brings general prosperity. It provides an aura of mutual support similar to what the US experienced, at least economically, in the aftermath of World War II.
 
There always are elements in society — and perhaps in each of us — that consider the interests of those who look or think like them to be superior to those of others. That contrast is clear in the current election. So the question always is: “How can I pursue my own interests and those of my group without demeaning the interests of others?” Furthering the interests of some while ignoring others has led to unrest and revolution throughout history. But using that question as a guide allows us to move democracy forward in a way that advances the interests of us all.

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So now we have a choice. We can vote for autocracy or democracy; one man rule or rule of law; an economy that primarily serves the powerful or the entire population; prioritizing our own tribe or the human race. We soon will know what America chooses.

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*Source of quotations: “Nobel economics prize goes to 3 economists who found that freer societies are more likely to prosper,” Associated Press, October 14, 2024.

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Steve Zolno graduated from Shimer College with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and holds a master’s in educational psychology from Sonoma State University. Steve has founded and directed private schools and a health care agency in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the author of seven books.

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