The Emergence of a New American Republic

• In Event: Political Representation: Race, Gender, and Age II

Abstract

The American republic is a discontinuous string of three republics, each lasting between seventy and eighty years, each with a distinct constitutional order, and each with its origins in a dislocating crisis. From this perspective, the first republic is the original order born of the American Revolution, which established a constitutional republic for white land-owning males. It was replaced following the Civil War by an industrial republic where membership was not explicitly determined by race. The Great Depression ushered in the third republic, which reshuffled the relationship between the federal and state governments to produce a modern welfare state that was revolutionary in its own right.

This third republic is being dismantled by Donald Trump. What follows is something alien to the American experience, namely a form of “competitive authoritarianism” similar to what Viktor Orban has established in Hungary. This model tilts the political playing field that effective two-party competition is skewed in favor of Trump’s revamped Republican Party.

If Trump fails, he is likely to open the door to something never in our history: a multicultural democracy. The political demography of the United States is already being recalibrated. Should a multicultural democracy emerge, fueled by the angst of Millennials, Zoomers, and a rising Alpha Generation, a fourth republic could see a number of political reforms. Each has the intent to eliminate minority rule and bring our system in line with the ideal of majority rule—in this case a new, multicultural majority—whose aspirations can be realized.

Today the path forward is unclear. What is clear, however, is that should Trump succeed in dismantling the federal government and empowering the plutocrats, a different American republic will emerge—one that will not easily be displaced. But if Trump fails, there will be no return to the status quo ante.

Authors

• John Kenneth White, Catholic University of America

• Matthew Kerbel, Villanova University