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Who Really Runs America? - The Atlantic

theatlantic.com · 8,709 words · saved by 1 readers

A political scientist explains why American democracy is so easily hijacked by organized minority factions. Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts Something has gone wrong in American democracy. Though our diagnoses differ, the entire political spectrum chafes at the widespread dysfunction. Our traditional modes for understanding democratic decline—tyranny of the majority, corruption, erosion of trust, polarization—all of these shed some light onto our current circumstances, but they fail to explain how policies with broad public support don’t materialize. While reporting on the democratic terrain in state and local government, I’ve become preoccupied with how easily minority interests are able to hijack broadly beneficial policy goals—often through mechanisms we view as democratically legitimate. Tools developed to push against a potential “tyranny of the majority” have allowed majorities to be subjugated to the will of minority interests time and

Listen − 1.0 x + Seek 0:00 50:57 Subscribe here: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Overcast | Pocket Casts Something has gone wrong in American democracy. Though our diagnoses differ, the entire political spectrum chafes at the widespread dysfunction. Our traditional modes for understanding democratic decline—tyranny of the majority, corruption, erosion of trust, polarization—all of these shed some light onto our current circumstances, but they fail to explain how policies with broad public support don’t materialize. While reporting on the democratic terrain in state and local government ,

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