OPINION: Our democracy isn’t perfect, but we can improve it

Is the United States a model democracy? Not that long ago, I suspect, most Americans would have answered with a resounding yes. But times have changed. We’ve lost confidence in our own system of government. And it’s not just Americans who question our democracy. Both here and around the world, many people say U.S. democracy used to be a model but no longer is such. The evidence comes from a recent Pew Research Center survey, which found that only one in five Americans think U.S. democracy is a good example for other countries. Fully 72 percent said it used to be a good example, but hasn’t been for several years. Those are bleak findings. The survey doesn’t tell us why Americans have lost faith in our democracy as a model, but we can guess. For one thing, it has been through a difficult time. Some of its essential principles — respect for the rule of law and for others’ rights, confidence in free and fair elections, etc. — have been under attack. Some of the survey results may reflect the extreme political polarization that our country is experiencing. With Joe Biden in the White House, Democrats were a little more likely than Republicans to say U.S. democracy was a good model. It won’t be surprising if the numbers flip with Donald Trump as president and Republicans in control of both houses of Congress. But the fact remains that many Americans, regardless of party, don’t think the system is working for them. Income inequality, inflation, high housing costs and other factors have taken a toll. For the past decade or so, trust in government has been at its lowest point in generations. In 1964, when I was first elected to Congress, almost 80 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing. Now only about 20 percent do. In 34 other countries where Pew conducted the same survey, a plurality of respondents agreed that that U.S. democracy used to be a good model, but it no longer is. In some of those countries, a significant number said U.S. democracy has never been a good example. Other research produces similar findings. A Gallup poll from early 2024 found that only 28 percent of Americans were satisfied with how democracy was working, down from 61 percent in 1984. In another poll, more than half said the U.S. is a “poorly functioning democracy.” Even more worrisome, one survey found nearly one-third of Americans would prefer to have a strong leader who could act without interference from other branches of government. There are plenty of reasons to critique our democracy. Some flaws are part of its design: for example, the lack of equal representation in the Senate. While our elections are generally free and fair, money has had a corrupting influence. Gerrymandering means that many elections are not competitive. The Electoral College concentrates presidential competition in a handful of battleground states. Trump has worsened matters by refusing to accept the result of the 2020 election, threatening to use his appointments to punish political adversaries, and ceding influence to Elon Musk, the world’s richest person. It’s understandable that Americans are discouraged about our democracy, but I believe its fundamentals are sound. Our system of checks and balances, the balance of power between the three branches, and the concern for individual liberties embedded in the Bill of Rights have served us well for 250 years. Winston Churchill famously said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the other forms that have been tried. Yes, it can be disappointing, and ours has never been perfect. But our history has been a story of strengthening democracy, expanding rights and making government more responsive. If we’re disappointed with democracy, the answer is to reform it, not abandon it.                   

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Lee Hamilton, 93, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at the IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south-central Indiana.