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David P Á wrote
I remember having read an article a while ago on how the US elites
decided, some time in the 1950s or 1960s, that democracy in the US was
working too well, and that people were too influential on politics. Of
course they phrased it in different terms, something like how uninformed
people could make it difficult to make the correct difficult decisions
etc. So they undertook some kind of programme of reforms in order to
atenuate the weight of democracy and curb accountability of elected
representatives.
Does anyone have info on this? If not this exact thing, something similar?
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For the most authoritative statement affecting policy changes in this
area, I suggest Samuel Huntington's section on democracy in the United
States (pp. 59-112) in The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the
Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission (1975),
available as a pdf document
http://www.trilateral.org/download/doc/crisis_of_democracy.pdf.
I dug out some notes on this report:
After reviewing the "democratic surge" of the 60s and "the primacy of
equality as a social goal", Huntington writes that the popular
movement's genesis, the eqalitarian temper of the times and the decline
in governmental authority which followed is ascribable to the "major
effort that was required" to meet the threat of the Soviet Union after
WW2 to "the security of the west" and to "popular
expectations...generated which it was impossible to meet; [that] "a
weakened government finds it impossible to impose the sacrifices
needed." What he terms "the democratic distemper" is associated with
"demographic trends, the postwar baby boom."...The new disrespect for
authority on the part of youth was part and parcel of broader changes in
their attitudes and values with respect to sexual morality, religion as
a source of moral guidance and traditional patriotism and allegiance to
'my country right or wrong, "changes in relation to the authority of
public institutions such as the authority of the law, the police, the
government and the boss in the workplace" the resulting generation gap,
rising levels of affluence and education...some of the problems...stem
from an excess of democracy... Needed instead is a greater degree of
moderation in democracy...the claims of expertise, seniority, experience
and special talents may override the claims of democracy as a way of
constituting authority.,,the effective operation of a democratic
political system usually requires some degree of apathy and
non-involvement on the part of some individuals and groups...[to avoid
the] lack of balance which leads to the swing back and forth between
creedal passion and creedal passivity."
He concludes with "Democracy never lasts long," John Adams observed. "It
soon wastes, exhaust and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet
that did not commit suicide."
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