America Is Living James Madison's Nightmare - Jeffrey Rosen (The Atlantic): the mob rule

Thèmes abordés

America Is Living James Madison's Nightmare, The Atlantic, mob rule, social media in politics, Jeffrey Rosen, James Madison, checks and balances, executive power, Congress, the Supreme Court, polarization

Résumé du document

The document under study is an article entitled "America Is Living James Madison's Nightmare". This except from the American magazine The Atlantic was published in the October 2018 issue. It was written by Jeffrey Rosen, an American academic and commentator on legal affairs. The audience of The Atlantic is mainly composed of "thought leaders" and the magazine supported Hillary Clinton during the last presidential elections. In this article, Jeffrey Rosen focuses on James Madison, one of the Founding Fathers and one of the main authors of the American Constitution. This politician was attached to the idea of a strong government resisting the "mob rule", the rule of the majority. Jeffrey Rosen uses this man as the starting point of his demonstration which wants to show that America is currently in the situation James Madison wanted to avoid, that is to say, where the "mob rule" dominates, where the electorate is deeply divided, where passions prevail over reason (notably thanks to social media), where the checks and balances system is undermined because of the overwhelming executive power... The author of the article thus tries to find an explication and a solution to escape from this situation.

Extraits

[...] In reality, the contrary happens since the checks and balances system is jeopardized because of the overwhelming executive power and the "imperial presidency". The columnist points out the fact that presidents don't take the Congress into account any more as they govern through the use of "executive order". Furthermore, Jeffrey Rosen alarms us about the increasing power and division of the Supreme Court. Adding to this, this institution invalidates more and more laws due to the extreme polarization between Democrats and Republicans. [...]

[...] Instead, the Republican leaders referred to them as "very fine people." As a conclusion, I agree with Jeffrey Rosen in the fact that the "mob rule" strongly threatens the American democracy. We actually really have to be aware of the dangers of the disequilibrium of the checks and balances system and the overuse of social media by politicians. Nevertheless, I hold the view that Rosen is a bit too Manichean in that he only considers the drawbacks of the use of social media in politics. [...]

[...] Indeed, in France, there are a lot of criticisms about the fact that the executive is too powerful thus overwhelming the legislative. To illustrate my arguments, let's take the example of Manuel Valls, former French Prime Minister. When he was in office, the latter used six times the article 49-3 of the French Constitution in order to push bills into law without any vote from the Parliament. As a result, we can establish a parallel with what Rosen says, showing that this situation is not specific to the United States. [...]

[...] Nevertheless, I do share Rosen's opinion on the influence of the media on polarization. Indeed, in the same vein, I think that media reinforce polarization because there are so many choices. Unlike in the 1970s or 1980s, people can pick and choose where they get their information, and they tend to go to media outlets that are compatible with their own political orientation. For instance, people who vote for the republicans mainly watch Fox News and the ones who support the democrats usually watch MSNBC. [...]

[...] Notwithstanding Madison's efforts to restrain the "formation of impetuous majorities", populism and "mob rule" are now what characterizes the current American society and political life. Indeed, we have to go back to the Civil War to see such a polarized Congress and such a divided electorate. Once again, the Founders' values are betrayed as they hated "factionalism" that is to say the "ideological warfare between parties" which strengthens the passions of their most extreme partisans. II. The impact of social medial on the executive power The commentator continues by discussing the impact of social medial on the executive power. [...]