Saving Democracy Through Dialogue and Debate

Donald Trump is often highlighted by Democrats as the ultimate threat to American democracy. While it’s true that his unwillingness to accept the results of the 2020 election - along with his fake electors scheme - contributed to the erosion of democratic norms, the reality is that backsliding had already been taking place well before the Apprentice star made his way to the political scene. So many Americans wouldn’t have been willing to believe the election was rigged against him had that not been the case.

Polarization is at an all-time high while trust in institutions is at an all-time low. Take the Supreme Court as an example. According to Gallup, about half of Americans expressed either a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the nation’s highest court in 2001. You might feel that number is already pretty abysmal and I would agree. But by 2024, only 30 expressed confidence in SCOTUS, representing a whopping 20 point drop from 2001.

In fact, Gallup’s respondents expressed a lack of confidence in all institutions, including public schools (29 percent), newspapers (18 percent), television news (12 percent), the presidency (26 percent) and Congress (9 percent). Oof!

Reforming these institutions would require majority support, which is hard to achieve when the nation’s voters appear to be deeply divided. However, Professor James Fishkin argues that dialogue and deliberation among the electorate could remedy what ails the country and democracy itself. Perhaps through openness and conversation, Americans will find they share more in common than they realize.

In his new book "Can Deliberation Cure the Ills of Democracy?” Fishkin explores how getting ordinary citizens to engage in informed and thoughtful deliberations can meaningfully improve modern democratic systems. This isn’t a new project either. Fishkin has been dedicated to this project since the 1980s and with incredible results.

We discuss his book, findings and more on this week’s episode of Unaligned. I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I did!