Diversity and Its Limits

In The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure, political scientist Yascha Mounk asks the most far-reaching political question of our age: can democracies that are ethnically diverse survive? Mounk calls it “the great experiment” because, although democracies throughout the world are becoming more ethnically diverse, the only example of such a democracy that has sustained itself for a significant period of time is the United States—and American democracy itself is in trouble. Potential solutions to this problem are limited, for reasons which Mounk baldly and correctly states: Turning back the clock is not an option, because “effective ways to halt the great experiment are virtually certain to be morally intolerable.”  Read Full Article »