From the early days of Cornell’s founding to the present, scholars have studied the idea and the practice of democracy – what it means, how it’s evolved around the world and what happens when it falls apart.
“Nothing in the development of humanity is more pathetic than the history of the various attempts to maintain liberty in republics,” Cornell founder A.D. White said in an 1892 address to the New York state teacher’s convention. “The shores of time are covered with the wreckage of stranded democracies.”
A well-educated people, “who are not easily misled,” is the only way to ensure a thriving democracy, he told the teachers, highlighting the foundational role of U.S. universities in maintaining democracy.
More than a century earlier, Benjamin Franklin had also quipped famously about the chances the new country would be a monarchy or a republic: “A republic, if you can keep it,” he said.
Cornell scholars say the present moment is a particularly grave moment for democracy in the United States, given a unique confluence of social, political and economic pressures.
“There was a sense that backsliding only happened to countries that were not at a certain level of economic development or who hadn’t had a democracy for a set number of years,” said Rachel Riedl, professor of government in A&S and the Brooks School of Public Policy. “There was an assumption that a certain set of countries, including the U.S., were above this threshold. But the combination of threats that the U.S. faces threatens even the most long-running and institutionalized democracies in the world.”
Now, Cornell scholars of U.S. politics are collaborating closely with colleagues in comparative politics to study democratic declines, as well as strategies for strengthening the republic we still have.
“One of the missions of a great university is to study the challenges we face as a society and to develop solutions,” said Peter Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of A&S. “For us as a college, that requires not only thoughtful research but robust public engagement. It also requires educating our students on how to work through disagreements and resist unnecessary political polarization.”
Read the full story on The College of Arts & Sciences website.
