Thought and Action

“The American experiment endures” declared President Biden, modelling the peaceful transfer of
power to his abrasive adversary. As many countries in Europe and across the world elect authoritarian national populists it is important to observe, reflect and deepen our democracies for people to meet their needs better. 

Many fear America’s experiment in democracy will be tested to destruction, but the majority of voters hope Trump’s Agenda 47 will improve their lives. Either way, the influence of political scientists and commentators is likely to be marginal. Their analyses could be about Mars for all the difference they make. 

William Starbuck observed in The Production of Knowledge that “Hundreds of thousands of talented researchers are producing little of lasting value”. He advocated researchers to challenge their thinking and conduct social experiments to help people solve problems in reality.

The election of Donald Trump challenges our thinking. In October New York Times polls reported that 59% of voters thought “the political system needs major changes”. 11% believed it “needs to be torn down entirely”.

Politics as social experiments

All politics are rough and ready experiments, tested in laboratories of public life. They are messy and unscientific, but affect life, death and taxes. Failed experiments end careers, governments, states or entire social systems.

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson called independence from Britain a democratic experiment. Alexis De Tocqueville urged Europeans to learn from it in Democracy In America (1835), while advocating a “new political science” to

“instruct democracy …  to substitute little by little the science of public affairs for its inexperience, knowledge of its true interests for its blind instincts; to adapt its government to times and places”.

States are the product of experiment, working hypotheses and models of how to govern. North and South Korea, the United States and People’s Republic of China are all alternative models, as well as political laboratories.

Eighty eight years later, a former President of the American Political Science Association, Woodrow Wilson, was elected US President, applying his knowledge to governing the USA and to the design of a new experiment in global governance, the League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations. Wilson is rightly criticized for racially segregating staff. Like all democracies, the United States is on a long journey from a nation founded on genocide, slavery, patriarchy and imperialism.

The democratic method

Over centuries, liberal democracies have developed methods to improve political experiments, through impartial rule of law, representative assemblies, civil liberties, universal education, economic freedoms, regulatory bodies, judicial review, transparency, peaceful transfer of power, democratic norms and electoral contests over competing visions. 

American voters decisively chose to change their model of the state by backing plans to cut taxes, slash regulation and renew “American Civilization.” Knowingly or not, they join illiberal democracies that make many to fear the democratic model is breaking down, as in 1861 and 1933.

Challenges for political science

Although the United States has the most political scientists in the world, its political system does not work for most voters. It also has the biggest higher education sector, producing ideas and professionals that run the system. 

There is some truth in Matthew Goodwin’s argument that Trump’s re-election, like the rise of national populism across Europe, is a response to university-educated progressives, whom he calls a “new elite” in Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics. 

But the election result is also a response to decades of political experiments informed by universities’ business and economics departments, including deregulation and globalisation that transferred manufacturing jobs to low waged countries and contributed to widening income inequality and decreasing political trust.

From 1998 to 2021, the U.S. lost more than 5 million manufacturing jobs and more than 70,000 manufacturing plants over roughly the same period (1998 to 2019). Source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI) employment data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS-CES). Data from US International Trade Commission (USITC 2021) See also: Nine Charts about
Wealth Inequality in America] 

A task for political science

Recognising politics as social experiments and states as social models should empower political scientists
to help citizens improve the “democratic method”.

Politics is difficult and demanding, yet we do little to teach practical politics and the skills citizens need to conduct their experiment in self-government, including the ability to question the thinking of politicians and professionals who run the system.

This means developing nonpartisan, pluralistic political literacy and civic education in the community, schools and the new media landscape.

It means ensuring that students and researchers are challenged by competing visions of society and engage with views different from their own, not in the abstract, but through respectful debate about contentious issues.

It means producing impartial, nonpartisan research on issues that should concern citizens and making it accessible for debate in public forums without fear. 

It also means seeking better models for solving social problems, locally, nationally or  internationally, and helping
citizens, practitioners and policy-makers to experiment on how to bring about better outcomes..

These are big tasks, requiring collective effort, but there are many models of civic education and engagement, democratic innovation and social reform from which to learn.

Many scholars are working on ideas and institutions to inform President Trump’s programme for government, through the America First Policy Institute, Project 2025 and Atlas Network, all 501(c)(3) non-profit, non-partisan research institutes. I question their impartiality, but they demonstrate that political scientists should not be afraid of helping citizens strengthen democratic governance in practice.

There is a clear line between being a political partisan and a facilitator, animateur, educator and researcher.
Scholars may enter the political sphere as advisers, advocates, citizens or candidates – as some do – but it is important to keep these roles separate. 

Elections are multi-level experiments

Election campaigns are a fusion of emotions, personalities, ideas and organisation that test more than competing visions, including:

1.    The ability of politicians to raise funds, communicate through multiple channels, organise supporters, hone winning policies and engage with voters.

2.    The priorities of citizens, expressed through civic associations, petitions, protests and pollsters.

3.    The influence of advocates for competing interests and ideas.

4.    The availability, quality and use of analyses of issues and policies to deal with them.

5.    The ability of politicians to govern and enable people to meet their needs and aspirations through institutions of the state, markets and civil society.

6.    The political system itself.

Trump met the first of these tests, but winning did not prove he can meet people’s needs, solve problems or govern well, or that the system is effective. A smooth transition enables Jefferson’s experiment to continue, but it will take much more to create better outcomes. Almost $16bn was spent on the 2024 federal elections before
anything is done about the issues raised. Choosing representatives is the most visible and expensive part of our political experiments, but they continue in our schools, civic associations, local governments, media and other institutions as well as the corridors of power. Political scientists can work with citizens between elections at all levels to improve democracy as a method to meet people’s needs better.