## Who decides what is Democratic - Adam Przeworki

- Definition of Democracy: Citizens can collectively decide, by whom and to some extent how they are governed

- Two conceptions of Democracy:
  
  - Minimalist: Method for processing conflicts in a society
    - Still needs laws and civic rights that protect it to work
    - Democracy is based on positive rights, but doesn’t automatically provide the conditions, that are necessary to exercise these rights
    - Some measures, that seem pro democratic in this sense can be misused to help a certain candidate, for example Erdogans decision to let people with Turkish citizenship living outside of turkey vote in Turkish elections helped him → Difficult to asses using minimalist criteria
  - Maximalist: Embodiment of democratic values, ideals and interests
    - Certain ideals are often valued above democracy, like representation, accountability, equality, justice, dignity etc.
    - Defenders of this notion will argue, that real democracy will guarantee these ideals, and anything that doesn’t is no democracy
    - These values, that people attach to democracy differ → Different definitions create conflicts

- Everyone claims to defend democracy, uses democratic rhetoric

- Democratic values can come in conflict with one another, for example laws that threaten democracy and human rights can have popular support

- Constitutions and judges are the guardians of democracy in the minimalist sense when they uphold and defend the conditions for free and fair elections

- Constitutions are maximalist in the sense, that they define certain values, that a government must uphold regardless of popular demand

- Judges can also be partisan and deliberately interpret the law in a way, that benefits the incumbent

- People are increasingly dissatisfied with traditional democratic institutions and the populist far right is on the rise

- The dissatisfaction comes from the fact, that these institutions have failed to provide equality in the economic and social realm, which is widely believed to be the purpose of democracy itself 

- Two types of populism:
  
  - Particapatory: The demand to govern ourselves
  - Delegative: The demand that governments do what people want, even if it defies the conditions necessary for the continued existance of democracy (Competetuve elections, liberal rights to speech and assosiation and the rule of law) 
    - Over time this weakens the chances and power of the opposition and distorts the free expression and power of the electorate

- Over time, the average number of major parties has risen all over the world 

## What is "Democratic Backsliding"?

- Definition: State-led debilitation or elimination of any of the political institutions that sustain an existing democracy
- Cuts to democracy often come wrapped in legality, are procedurally correct
- Happens when institutions that are independent from the executive and are meant to restrain it start enabeling it without question
- Executive acts, that further democratic backsliding are often justified in one of three ways:
  - Eliminating threats to national security or public order
  - Checking rampant corruption
  - Correcting supposed electoral irregularities 
- Demnocratic backsliding happens slowly and incrementally
- Three types:
  - Democratic erosion: 
-

## Democratic Backsliding in the US

- Trump is trying to dramatically increase the amount of power he has as a president by
  - Firing government workers
  - Using an excessive amount of executive orders
  - Placing loyalists in important positions, people who disagree with him get fired
    - Example: Marjorie Taylor Greene criticised Trump because of his handling of the Epstein Files, the war in Gaza and healthcare subsidies very publicly, was publicly denounced by Trump and called a traitor and had to resign
  - Unitary executive theory: The theory that all executive power should be in the presidents hands
- The institutions, that are supposed to be independent from Trump openly work in a partisan way with Donald Trump
	- The DOJ and FBI are lead by Trump-Loyalists and have openly admitted to working with him
- Trump has sent the national guard to democrat-run cities to "fight the enemy from within"
- Trump is publicly investigating and prosecuting his critics 
- Trump publicly denies the results of the 2020 election
- Trump publicly demanded Republican states to do "Gerrymandering", which entails redrawing voting districts to favour you own party
	- This works, because in the US, the state legislature has primary control over how the voting districts get drawn

## Obstacles to Donald Trumps "Project"
- Strong federalism
	- 36.5% of the US population lives in States where both the executive and the two houses of the legislature are controlled by the Democratic Party
		- State governments still have a lot of power over education, law enforcement and civil society
- The judicial system still has a lot of judges that continue to fight Donald Trump (Even though the Surpreme Court still supports Trump)
- America is too diverse and commited to free speech to be able to be captured by a facist government
- Trumps reputation (the Epstein Files)
- The direct impact, his economic and social policies
	- Tarrifs, cuts to healthcare subsidies
	- Rising unemployment, inflation
	- 53% of americans think that the economy is worsening under Trump