Challenges to Subnational Democracy in the United States, Past and Present

• Published date: 01 January 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211072952
• Author: Robert Mickey
• Date: 01 January 2022
• Subject Matter: How Spatial Organization Endangers Democracy

118 ANNALS, AAPSS, 699, January 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211072952

Challenges to

Subnational

Democracy in

the United

States, Past and

Present

By

ROBERT MICKEY

1072952ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYCHALLENGES TO SUBNATIONAL DEMOCRACY

research-article2022

After a half century of stable performance, American

democracy is now under threat. The threat emerged

from nationalized party competition, but it is made

manifest largely in the actions of Republican politicians

at the state level. This article describes these actions

and suggests how and why the current threat to democ-

racy differs from past periods.

Keywords: subnational democracy; authoritarianism;

Republican Party

After finally completing its democratization

in the early 1970s, the United States expe-

rienced about five decades as a stable, multira-

cial democracy. That stability is gone. American

democracy is in trouble—in many ways, and for

many reasons (Mettler and Lieberman 2020).

Below, I discuss subnational democracy, its

absence for most of U.S. history, and the nature

and causes of current challenges to it. I argue

that these causes differ substantially from past

ones and suggest why this is important. In

doing so, I emphasize the nationalization of

party conflict and the evolution of the Republican

Party into an extremist organization with declin-

ing commitment to democratic rule.

The Health of American National

Democracy

Democracies feature “fully contested elections

with full suffrage and the absence of massive

fraud, c ombined with effective guarantees of civil

liberties, including freedom of speech, assembly,

and association” (Collier and Levitsky 1997,

434). For elections to be effective mechanisms

Robert Mickey is an associate professor of political sci-

ence at the University of Michigan.

Correspondence: rmickey@umich.edu