Fragile republic

Joe Biden will have to deal with social justice issues in order to maintain democracy in the United States

The Presidential elections in the United States, held in early November, actually turned into a referendum on the preservation of the American institutional system. The predecessor of Joseph Biden Donald Trump successfully promoted his candidates for important posts in the American judicial system. If he won, then during his second period he could have tried to change the institutional design of the United States even more and shake the system of separation of powers.

In this case, restrictions on the policy pursued by Trump could significantly weaken. However, Trump could not be re -elected, so such an opportunity, if not disappeared, then at least turned out to be postponed until the next presidential election.

If the Democrats want to prevent attempts to dismantle the key blocks of the American institutional system in four years, then Joe Biden will have to demonstrate voters from the opposite political camp that the Democratic Party is really ready to conduct political and economic reforms in response to structural problems accumulated in the United States for decades. This is not an easy task, but difficulties are more of a political rather than economic origin.

While Biden does not take office and spends enough time in the leader of the country, we will not have sufficient grounds to judge his commitment to the reform program. During the leadership of Barack Obama, the solution of many most important structural problems did not fall into the list of priorities of the presidential administration.

Biden in his program more reacts to the long -term defects of the American economy, which the Democrats managed to realize in the last four years, but there is no clarity for how much he will try to fulfill his promises and what his economic policy will be.

Another political problem is the extreme electoral polarization in the United States. Today, the most important criterion for decision -making among politicians is party affiliation. If these are representatives of the Democratic Party, then the Republican official will most likely counteract their initiative. This significantly complicates the plans of the democrats to implement their program, especially in view of the balance of power in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

This state of affairs was not typical of American politics in the past. When Franklin Roosevelt was faced with the confrontation of the judicial system while trying to implement the new course politics, his proposal to appoint additional judges and thus take control of the judicial system, resisted both from the Democrats and from the Republicans.

Finally, it is not very clear how long the consent and cooperation will remain within the Democratic Party itself and whether the new president will be able to enjoy the widespread support of his own one -party members.

From the point of view of economic resources of restrictions, the new American leader is much less. The United States remains one of the most technologically and economically developed states in the world. In accordance with the modified economic complexity index (.pdf), the United States are located at the top of the corresponding rating together with Germany and Japan.

Large -scale problematic phenomena in such economies are manifested only at long distances. Today, large crises affect the United States rather the spheres of politics, compliance with the rights of various social groups, the equality of opportunities and the distribution of economic results.

One of the reasons for the inequality of opportunities lies in the design of the American educational system: it is characterized by great differences as the provision of knowledge at the level of both school and university education. Attempts by authorities of different levels to smooth these differences are still clearly insufficient. During his campaign, Joseph Biden proposed making state universities free for households, whose income level does not exceed $ 125 thousand a year.

It should be noted significant differences in the access of American citizens to the capabilities of the healthcare system - first of all, there is no universal medical insurance system in the USA. During the election campaign, Biden promised to introduce such a system, but it is not entirely clear what its structure will be if the new American president fulfills his promise.

In addition, reforms are required by a slow, clumsy and rather buying system of social insurance, as well as institutions for protecting the interests of workers who would allow them to take a more strong position in the negotiation process with employers.

Joe Biden has to convince those who voted in his political opponent in the past elections that their needs will no longer be ignored by a democratic establishment. If instead the new democratic power in the White House will make the center of its policy the interests of the most prosperous part of its electorate, then by the next election in the United States a significant part of the voters will be ready to support a candidate who can radically change the design of American institutions. This will open the way to the process of concentration of power in the hands of the new leader.

Today, before the United States, even a small, but still window of opportunities to solve accumulated problems and mitigate contradictions in society opens.