DPC Policy Note #20
Introduction
Whether or not they voted for the winning side, Americans will be witness to tectonic changes in the forthcoming period. The rest of the world – which didn’t get a vote – is bracing itself as well. The potential shifts and disruptions are already taking shape through personnel appointments and statements of intent.
This essay presents some forward-looking themes, ideas, warnings and hopes from someone who has worked to promote democratic ideals, accountable good governance, rights-based rule of law and civic engagement outside of the US, in the former Yugoslavia, for over 20 years. Every aspect of American governance, institutions and civil society stands to be tested and strained; their strengths, weaknesses and resilience remain an open question. At the same time, this disruption will provide space for sorely needed progressive populist ideas to finally shatter demonstrably false assumptions about the impacts of neoliberalism and flawed democratic governance that have led to global outrage at the status quo and misplaced trust in strongman leadership. These fissures had been forming over years; deepened with the 2008 financial crisis and its aftermath; and were rendered devastating by the impact of the pandemic.
Some of the themes considered here are abstract, some are concrete; some are practical, and some are warnings grounded in experiences seen elsewhere around the world. As a series of discrete yet inter-related reflections, they together form a post-election, pre-Inauguration baseline of ideas and issues to be flagged and further considered and developed over what is likely to be a period of realignment with material and ideological winners and losers. While focused on how these issues and dynamics will play out in the US, our interlinked and interconnected world makes it inevitable that there will be both positive and negative spillover and learning. The question is whether the end result will be more or less democracy and opportunity for more people, or a greater consolidation and concentration of both among a lucky few, in the US and beyond.