THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 3, 1997 TAG: 9701030003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 91 lines
All democracies are not alike.
In most democratic nations, elected officials serve fairly long terms and are expected to do what they think is best for their nations.
In the United States, elected officials serve terms as short as two years and are expected to do what voters want.
In most democratic nations, believe it or not, there are often prolonged periods when no political campaigns are taking place.
In the United States, campaigning is constant. The U.S. is the only nation with primaries. Five states, including Virginia, have either a national or statewide election every single year.
``To an extent that astonishes a foreigner,'' writes Anthony King, a Canadian citizen who teaches political science at the University of Essex in England, ``America is about the holding of elections.''
King's provocatively titled book, Running Scared: Why America's Politicians Campaign Too Much and Govern Too Little, is being published this month; and an article adapted from it appears in the January issue of The Atlantic Monthly.
He argues that America's problem is too much democracy.
In most democracies, he says, the views of the people are only one of many factors considered by elected officials. Americans, however, believe that elected officials should ``reflect in all their actions the views of the majority of the people, whatever those views may be.''
The problem with the American view, he says, is that it does not leave the officials room to do what they believe is best for the nation. It does not leave them room to govern.
When they should be governing, King says, they are, instead, running scared that they'll lose their next election. American politicians run more scared than politicians in other nations for three main reasons: short terms, primaries and the relative weakness of American political parties.
Because the parties are weak, and because many Americans vote for the person and not the party, an American politician is mainly on his own. In most democratic nations, King says, a politician succeeds if his party succeeds and fails if his party fails. That means a politician's every vote or utterance is not scrutinized to see if it might be used against him in the next election.
It's true, King acknowledges, that most American incumbents who seek re-election succeed. That doesn't alter the fact, however, that they run scared of having to face a primary opponent, an expensive proposition, or of losing office, possibly because of an obscure line in a speech they once gave.
Because American politicians run scared, they are vulnerable to every special-interest group that can provide votes or money. They are more vulnerable today than ever before.
Politicians feeling vulnerable engage in what King calls ``symbolic politics.'' For example, crime is a problem so Congress passes anti-crime bills in election years, whether they'll help much or not. From 1981 through 1994, anti-crime bills passed in six of the seven election years, usually late in the year, but in only one of the off-election years.
Another consequence of politicians' running scared is that tough decisions - such as the kind needed to balance the federal budget - require more political bravery than they can muster. In many other nations, a politician can successfully explain an unpopular vote by saying, ``My party made me do it.''
King recommends some cures for what he believes ails American democracy - all of which are interesting and some of which would require constitutional amendments.
Lengthen terms of members of the House of Representatives from two years to four. President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed that change in his 1966 State of the Union address.
Lengthen senators' terms from six to eight years, with half of the senators retiring or running for re-election every four years. That way, a third of the Senate will not be preoccupied with elections every two years.
Do not require incumbents to compete in primaries unless a potential primary opponent submits a petition bearing some large number of signatures. That would reduce the number of primaries, which are expensive and detract from governing.
Strengthen parties. Among other things, King would make it easier for ordinary citizens to give to parties and for parties to give to candidates.
In the present hyper-democratic atmosphere in America, King recommends having much of the important work done by nonpartisan commissions, like the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. Such commissions - acting out of the public eye and offering take-it-or-leave-it proposals - tend to voter-proof elected officials.
What Americans are clamoring for, of course, is not less democracy but more. Calls for national referendums, initiatives and recalls are all popular.
``The more they call for more democracy,'' King says of Americans, ``the more of it they get. The more of it they get, the more dissatisfied they become with the workings of their government. The more they become dissatisfied with the workings of their government, the more they call for more democracy. The cycle endlessly repeats itself.''
You don't have to buy all of King's prescriptions to agree with much of his diagnosis. Ways must be found to elect politicians with the guts to govern. They might accomplish a great deal, before losing bids for re-election.