Maintaining Democracy with a Rigid, Yet Robust Constitution. Lessons from the Donald Trump Era

How to maintain political stability and community belongs to the recurring questions of political science. The tendency of (and attributed to) institutions to erode over time is found throughout history into the present. Democratic viability has posed a concern of modern government too, but it is also an increasing concern – not least due to developments in the United States, the world’s longest-standing democracy. Numerous challenges and disruptions to established democratic norms, rules and institutions have emerged under the candidacies and presidencies of Donald trump especially. From populism and polarization to democratic backsliding, the U.S. polity has been, and continues to be, put to the test. Yet despite all of the changes and even crises, also preceding the Trump administrations, i.e. with polarization and deadlocks intensifying in the U.S. already as of the 1990s, it should seem puzzling how stable the constitution itself has remained. This invites revisiting a perennial political question on the long-term viability of democratic systems, for one, and reflecting on how the testing of democracy in recent years could still be coped with by constitutional politics for another. This contribution aims to conceptualize potential lessons from the testing of democracy in the Trump Era regarding democratic and multilevel tensions, and especially with a view to how such vastly different political directions still get accommodated by the same constitutional framework. Moreover, it will reflect on implications with regard to another research desideratum on democratic maintenance and repair.