A Path to Institutional Pluralism

[Celerity]

A renewal of civil society + better internal norms supporting value pluralism + more political competition.

https://www.liberalpatriot.com/p/a-path-to-institutional-pluralism



The genius of the American political system—as envisioned by James Madison in Federalist No. 10—lies in the fact that no one faction or combination of factions can easily impose its will on everyone else thus preserving individual liberty and reducing opportunities for majoritarian tyranny. In this pluralist system, the proliferation of interest groups and the widening of their geographic distribution naturally leads to compromise and coalitions, since no one group can dominate all others and any momentary political victory will be fleeting in a system with multiple checks and balances and division of powers between the federal and state governments.

In pluralist theory, political competition works much like market competition by eliminating the worst performing ideas and factions and rewarding the better and more successful ones that can attract a wider audience. Like market concentration, however, if political competition is reduced the worst ideas and performers—or those with the most power and money—will gain strength rather than face elimination or scrutiny. Without sufficient competition, like-minded factions can easily align themselves internally to consolidate power within states and localities to achieve narrow ends in a political monopoly. Much to James Madison’s chagrin (from the grave), a lack of real political competition and dispersal of various factions across society is the exact situation American politics finds itself in today.

There are few genuinely competitive states and districts in U.S. presidential and congressional races. American cities and counties are virtual one-party polities controlled uniformly by either Democrats or Republicans. Value pluralism is almost entirely absent from most political institutions including the two political parties and the elaborate non-profit and media infrastructures that support them. There’s one way of doing business inside these political monopolies. It’s “us versus them”—pick a side. Rather than promote competition and compromise, the American political system today encourages a “give no quarter” mentality among partisans built on internal complacency and little tolerance for dissent. How might we change these unfortunate conditions to better support genuine pluralism as Madison and others envisioned? The previous piece in this series examined how cultural pluralism may be encouraged. Here we will examine some potential ideas for increasing institutional pluralism.

American civil society needs a serious reboot.

The single best antidote to ideological and partisan conformity within politics is a true blossoming of divergent ideas and groups across civil society. The philanthropic world is currently arguing over how best to encourage value pluralism in America as ideological and partisan conformity has taken over many institutions that were once dedicated to different philosophical approaches, the pursuit of individual group interests, or more neutral and analytical policy research and development. The networks of astroturfed “grassroots” organizations, think tanks, and other giant campaign organizations on both the left and the right today no longer function as independent bodies developing new ideas, gathering and analyzing neutral facts, brokering compromises, and supporting mutually beneficial, big-tent politics. Rather, the institutions that make up these political networks often converge on the same set of ideas and positions within a commonly accepted and enforced partisan framework that serves the interests of those currently in power—or those seeking power.

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[niyad]

1. KNR and bookmarking. A most important read.