Joseph Schreiner: Author and Columnist

Are Democracies Doomed?

Blue Moon, 31 May 2026

This moon, I would like to comment on the apparently inherent defects that lead to the downfall of democracies. I start my commentary, of course, with a distinction made in every decent civics class in the United States. The United States (as are most countries in Europe) is a republic, not a democracy.

A republic is a form of government where citizens elect representatives, who in turn, make the laws of the country. A democracy is a form of government where the citizens themselves vote on what becomes law.

Another important distinction is that between the above forms of government versus specific political parties in the United States. The United States has two mainstream political parties, the “Democrats” and the “Republicans’, whose names have little to do with the concepts that I discuss here.

In the United States, the term “democracy” has been degraded by mass media, politicians, and an easily manipulated populace, having become a buzzword, a sacred cow, an unquestionable lofty ideal. For those acquainted with history, especially Greco-Roman history, however, democracy is just a polite name for mob rule.

A significant portion of the dysfunctionality of United States politics can be attributed the country’s de facto transition from a republic to a democracy. What are some of these defects?

Perhaps the mother of all defects is deficit spending enabled by fiat currency. The governments of so-called democracies have racked up unpayable debts due to the unreasonable demands of their citizens. Politicians can only be elected by promising something for nothing. People naturally want free stuff and will not tolerate any suggestion of having to pay for the services that they demand. This sleight-of-hand is enabled by central banking and fiat currency, which is worth a post in itself.

A second great policy failure that can be attributed to democracy is its propensity for war, at least in the United States. Any competent leader in a democracy can whip up war hysteria on demand. The population of the United States, before the two world wars of the 20th century, strongly opposed entry into European conflicts. Yet, with deft manipulation, the country’s leadership converted the populace into enthusiastic war-boosters.

This propensity to resort to war rhetoric is a standard playbook for democratic politicians. Every election cycle generates a new war: the war on terror, the war on the coronavirus, the war on drugs, the war on poverty … I wait for the far-off day when a politician will declare a war on war.

Another defect in democracy is short-term thinking. Hans-Herman Hoppe explains this in great detail in his book, “Democracy: The God That Failed”. Politicians, knowing that only have a short time in office, will make decisions that maximize their profits in the short term, at the expense of the long term.

The United States is still, technically, a republic, though the pressure to degrade it to a total democracy is great. Two mechanisms of degradation, present and past, are worth noting.

The first is the call to abolish the Electoral College as the means of electing a president. The Electoral College was established to make certain that all states of the country would have a say in the selection of a chief executive. If the Electoral College were abolished, a potential president would only need to whip up frenzy in a few large urban centers to secure his/her election. We already see this pathology in states (Illinois, Washington, New York …) where a large urban center dominates state politics and steam rolls over the remainder of the state.

Another lesser-known maneuver that degraded the United States republic was the direction election of senators. In the original Constitution, the legislatures of the respective states selected the senators that represented them in the federal government. That arrangement made certain that states’ interests were represented in federal legislation. The popular election of senators makes the Senate of the United States redundant with its House of Representatives. And it makes the senators subject to the fickle whim of the populace, which is what the drafters of the Constitution wanted to avoid. The transition from state legislatures to at-large occurred during a tragic year, 1913, which also included the establishment of the Federal Reserve and the federal income tax.

Powerful interests can advance their agendas via the mob rule of a democracy. In a republic, such lobbyists would need to deal with a variety of lawmakers in order to enact their agenda. In a democracy, all they need to do is whip up hysteria in the mainstream media. Or these days, the alternative media.

Congress, which should be the acme of a republican form of government, is becoming an irrelevant media spectacle. All this is due to the pressure of democratization. Congressmen cannot deliberate and vote on what is best for the long-term interests of the country. Retaining their positions requires them to monitor and pander to daily opinion polls.

So where will this lead? In a procedural sense, it leads to mercurial decisions or governmental paralysis, or both. In a policy sense, it leads to societal collapse from refusal to deal with long-term issues. For the United States, I see three grim possibilities. The first is economic collapse, as the unpayable national debt leads to hyperinflation or default. The second is collapse of the country’s infrastructure, as wealth is diverted from long-term upkeep to paying people not to work. The third path to collapse is a devastating war. War profiteers can engender a hysteria that sweeps the country into a suicidal international conflict. What can stop this decline? A return to a fully republican form of government, where elected officials are able to address long-term issues.