Politics are worse than they used to be, but Americans should not give up hope, Craig Calhoun, university professor of social sciences at Arizona State University, told an audience at Miami University on March 5.
Calhoun is a fellow of the British Academy and has authored or co-authored eight books. He has also taught at New York University. Calhoun’s lecture, “Degenerations of Democracy: What’s Next?” was part of the Western College Legacy Seminar. He discussed the 2024 election cycle, global democracy and his new co-authored book, “Degenerations of Democracy.”
Calhoun shared data explaining that Americans are hopeless when it comes to their political voice. He said that political fatigue is at an all-time high.
“A combination of media and political voices make your vote seem irrelevant,” Calhoun said. “You should reject the idea that elections are predetermined.”
Calhoun said that while elections may seem predetermined, it is in the giving up and polarization that voters actually lose out on good elections
“Democracy is not in great shape,” Calhoun said. “Americans tend to think the ‘other side’ causes all the problems.”
Calhoun used case studies on slavery, immigration, religion and populism to show that today’s problems fit patterns that are decades long. He described populism as a trend that has existed for decades, and said that today’s populist trends are similar to that of Reagan-era politics.
He said people feel tired when it comes to politics, and people feel that their vote doesn’t matter, according to an aggregate of polling data he provided.
“I don’t think citizens feel very empowered and participatory in the process,” Calhoun said. “We’ve collectively made political decisions not to help people have better lives.”
However, Calhoun said that if students and Americans “keep asking questions,” we can stop the trend of hopelessness in American politics.
The Western College Legacy Semar is intended to provide a space for experts to speak about complex social and political issues, according to Jacqueline Daugherty, director of the Western Center. Daugherty said that Super Tuesday and the sixtieth anniversary of Freedom Summer made the talk “timely.”
Dozens of students attended the lecture in Shideler Hall on Tuesday evening. Lily Rueckhaus, a first-year student majoring in individualized studies, said she learned a lot about the evolution of democracy.
“It put in perspective in the past 20 years how much everything has changed,” Rueckhaus said. “I’m a little pessimistic but I’m trying to find hope.”
