Abstract
Everyone worries about democracy, although not everyone pauses to say what they mean by it. A New York Times poll shortly before the last election found that large shares of voters in both parties feared for democracy, although they didn’t fear the same things. In the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, about ninety percent of partisan voters said the country would suffer serious damage if the other guy won2; they presumably didn’t have quite the same worries. Pollsters ask people whether they expect political violence in future elections, and voters respond that they do. Bookstores have been full of titles like How Democracies Die4 and How Democracy Ends5—yes, the field is crowded enough that those are different books. For many law students, this time of intense anxiety, which we can date to 2016, has been the only political climate you’ve known as an adult.
Recommended Citation
Jedediah Purdy, The Possible Futures of American Democracy, 2023 ULR 1009 (2023)