Tag: one-party rule

Gerrymandering and the Rising Risk of a Monopoly on Power

New York Times logoThe Supreme Court’s decision merely preserves the status quo, but together with other trends, it could put a strain on democracy.

At some point or another over the last decade, Democrats have won the most votes but lost national elections for the presidency, the House and the Senate.

Partisan gerrymandering is just one of the reasons the Democrats are at such a disadvantage. But the Supreme Court’s decision on gerrymandering Thursday came as long-term political and demographic trends threaten to put Democrats at an even greater disadvantage in the Senate and perhaps also the presidency.

It’s even possible to imagine a future in which Republicans could effectively claim a monopoly on federal power despite continued weakness in the national vote.

View the complete June 28 article by Nate Cohn on The New York Times website here.

Why It Can Happen Here

The following commentary by Paul Krugman was posted on the New York Times website August 27, 2018:

We’re very close to becoming another Poland or Hungary.

Soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a friend of mine — an expert on international relations — made a joke: “Now that Eastern Europe is free from the alien ideology of Communism, it can return to its true historical path — fascism.” Even at the time, his quip had a real edge.

And as of 2018 it hardly seems like a joke at all. What Freedom House calls illiberalism is on the rise across Eastern Europe. This includes Poland and Hungary, both still members of the European Union, in which democracy as we normally understand it is already dead.

In both countries the ruling parties — Law and Justice in Poland, Fidesz in Hungary — have established regimes that maintain the forms of popular elections, but have destroyed the independence of the judiciary, suppressed freedom of the press, institutionalized large-scale corruption and effectively delegitimized dissent. The result seems likely to be one-party rule for the foreseeable future.

View the complete article here.