PATTERNS AND MECHANISMS OF DEMOCRACY UNDER STRESS

This project focuses on political consequences of the early New Deal reforms in the thirties of the Twentieth Century in the United States. Times of economic crisis might affect political legitimacy, established institutions, actor interests as well as the balance of power among actors. Existing regulations and institutions become questioned politically and in terms of economic effectiveness. Furthermore, a shrinking economy aggravates existing - and causes new - distributional conflicts between social and economic groups. However, the United States was the only large industrial state where by means of economic reforms a durable democratic alliance emerged during the Great Depression. The scientific core of this project is a better understanding of the mechanisms that formed the policy claims of actors in respect to democracy and the role of the state. How did economic contraction and reform efforts affect political thinking of American decision makers? I aim to distinguish between the normative and structural elements influencing political thinking as well as between fundamental and reform induced changes to these elements. The project focuses on building and applying a theoretical approach that is influenced by the ideas of Lipset, Schumpeter, Parsons or Dunn and on methods of comparative case study analysis that try to refine and blend historical methods with social science methods as proposed by Weber and Mayntz or by George and Bennett. Furthermore, four historical comparative case studies of distinct spheres of economic activity enable analysis of actors’ behavior in their respective and differing economic situations.Democracy is generally seen as a political system that provides the people with protection from arbitrariness and furthers their wellbeing most. Even though democratic systems also witness corruption and violations of human rights, the chances for individuals to receive protection against those evils are greater in democracies than in autocratic systems. Among scholars of democracy consensus prevails to a certain extent that Winston Churchill came closest with his judgment that “democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”. I argue that the form of government is of such an importance that it is worthwhile studying patterns and mechanisms underlying why democracy prevails and the reasons why democracy might become threatened.