Many countries see USA as the model of democracy. However, when it comes to efficient implementation, the Americans seem to have little to be proud of. Human rights scandals like Guantanamo does seriously affect America’s international reputation (Mahubani, 2009), but the most immediate consequence is the domestic political rigidity. Many attempts which are supposed to reach democracy end up with gridlock, which, in my opinion, is driven by three factors.
The separation of the executive, legislative and judicial powers ranks the first. Such separation may guarantee that neither of the three branches can be tyrannical, but if we look at it closely, no one has the final say. Once there is a disagreement, it may take them ages to solve it for each part is restricting and at the same time restricted. The price of democracy is efficiency, as Fukuyama (2011) argues American political system “has ensured individual liberty and a vibrant private sector, but it has now become polarized and ideologically rigid.”
Secondly comes the bipartisan mechanism whose defects can be perfectly illustrated by the recent American government shutdown, which is triggered by the disagreement on the Obamacare between the Democratic and the Republic. The competition between the two parties which aims to be democratic results in the decayed ideology of removing from public interest to party doctrines. Otherwise they would never let their disagreements lead to governmental dysfunction which is the last thing the American people want.
Obamacare is also related to the dispute over “small government.” Mahubani (2009) believes it is critical for a state to have an efficient government which can be responsive to its people. However, the ideology rooted in a large part of American society is the smaller the government is, the greater democracy and freedom the people can enjoy. It is surly the case, but when confronted with major crisis, a small government would be too incompetent to cope and therefore paralysis is inevitable. Such can be seen in both the shutdown and the recent financial crisis.
Asian countries did not learn from American political system (Mahubani, 2009), and this neglect probably contributes to China’s development for its political system allows it to make big decisions efficiently (Fukuyama, 2011). The international indifference to its proud democratic mechanism should alert the American government. Maybe the U.S. could draw some enlightenment from its European allies, many of whom, with a multiparty system, are not necessarily more efficient but at least avoid ideological rigidity, or even from Asia to try to have a bigger government. Otherwise, it would eventually step down from its leading position as a democratic model.
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容