As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, two historians of the world's longest-lasting democracies warn that the nation's future may depend on whether Americans can revive a fading civic skill: compromise.
The Call for Compromise
“We have to figure out a way to compromise, to strike bargains,” said Josiah Ober, a political scientist and historian at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. “Without bargaining, the whole collective self-government thing goes down the tube.”
Ober and fellow historian Brook Manville have studied what worked and what failed in ancient Athens, the Roman Republic, Great Britain’s constitutional monarchy, and the founding of the United States. Their findings appear in their book, The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives.
Warning Signs
“We’re not in the worst shape,” Ober said of the U.S. today, but he noted troubling signs similar to those seen before other democracies collapsed. These include infighting among citizens, extreme political polarization, and a decline in civic engagement and education.
“A lot of these things we have seen before,” Manville added. Today’s political divides have arisen in all past democracies, “and it usually is either corrected or it leads to demise.”
Manville emphasized, “The key thing is not, ‘is this worse than what we did before?’ but rather, ‘is there a chance to recover in a way that we’ve recovered in the past?’”
Lessons from History
In classical Athens, democracy collapsed after infighting, political instability, and a great war, but it recovered after recognizing and correcting its errors, Manville said. The Romans attempted similar recoveries but “just couldn’t get there, and that was the end of the Roman Republic.”
“Can it be turned around? Yes. There are examples of this,” Ober said. “If it doesn’t get turned around, could the whole thing go down the tubes and could you have a boot on your neck in the next generation? Yes. That could happen.”
To achieve more stability, the U.S. must return to its roots of self-government and recognize the significance of the Declaration of Independence, one of the nation’s most difficult bargains, which preceded the even harder-to-agree-upon U.S. Constitution.
The founders disagreed over taxes, slavery, wartime disruptions, and fears of a British return. Their first constitution, the Articles of Confederation, failed. The final Constitution, amended 27 times, was “the best bargain available” at the time, Ober said.
“The idea is, that’s the beginning, and then you’re supposed to, in that ongoing democracy, renegotiate. And it should be getting better over time,” Ober said.
Failure to compromise and respect one another as citizens can lead to an enemy mindset, he warned: “you don’t bargain with your enemies, you destroy them.”
Current Divisions
Nationwide divides and talk of an “enemy within” have increased in recent years. An academic analysis found that President Donald Trump, like his predecessors, predominantly used the word “evil” during his first term to describe foreign threats. Since his second term, he has used it primarily for political opponents, journalists, and federal prosecutors.
A University of Cambridge study found that social and political division in the U.S. has increased by 64% since 1988, with most of that occurring in the last 18 years. A Pew Research poll from last month found that Democrats and Republicans prioritize advancing their own policies over finding common ground, and most people in one party hold a grossly unfavorable view of those in the opposing party.
Partisan stalemates have led to more government shutdowns, the most recent lasting a record 76 days.
“We’re in a difficult time,” Ober said. “And what we say in the book is, yeah, democracies can fail. And sometimes when they fail, there’s gonna be a boss. There will be some individual, or some gang will take over, and they will tell you what to do. If they’re not entirely aligned with your preferred way of doing things, you’re going to suffer from that.”
Hope and Solutions
Polls consistently show that most Americans want both parties to solve problems and compromise. Ober noted there are many people “who are really putting their shoulder to the wheel and saying, ‘Let’s start here.’”
Efforts include expanding civic education in schools and community outreach through nonpartisan organizations, as well as neighborhood cleanups, local charity work, and attending school board or city government meetings—all of which encourage a sense of belonging and involvement, according to the National League of Cities.
Lessons from past democracies emphasize the importance of public service. In ancient Athens, the Roman Republic, and Great Britain, near-constant warfare meant citizens served in the military, fostering a “sense of responsibility that goes along with the freedoms and privileges of citizenship,” Manville said.
Such unity was seen in the U.S. during World War II, when Americans fought alongside one another on the front lines, creating “a certain positive ethos,” Manville added.
Both historians stressed that the U.S. has made tremendous strides and is better off today than in the past. “Having made it this far is really remarkable; having survived a nightmare civil war is remarkable,” Ober said. “The Jim Crow era was just horrific; we survived that.”
Manville said of the 250th milestone, “The birthday card should be, ‘Congratulations, you made it this far.’”
Things may never be perfect, but standards can change through active, civic bargaining. “Everyone gets sick when they’re growing up,” Manville said, “but the strong and healthy bounce back.”
