Sebastián Royo publishes essay on democracy for leading Spanish think tank

Provost Sebastián Royo and Professor Kristen Williams last semester co-taught the undergraduate political science course Democracy in Distress?, a title that Royo acknowledges may not have been entirely accurate: The question mark could easily have been removed.

The cornerstone of American governance is unquestionably under threat, Royo argues, and is being steadily ground down by the kinds of extremism, polarization, and misinformation that found their fullest expression in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but which continue to cause damage in quieter, yet no less destructive, ways.

In an essay published by the Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies, a think tank based in Madrid, Spain, Royo notes that according to recent polls, 71 percent of Americans believe that our democracy is at risk (read an English translation of Royo’s essay, which is written in Spanish. He points to a series of factors that compromise democracy in the United States, including a dramatic increase in political violence, a corrosive distrust of institutions, the refusal to accept the results of fair elections, legislative bickering and stagnation, and a political system whose structure and operations are being manipulated in ways that surrender control to a minority of players who contravene the will of the majority. 

The U.S. is now looking at the possibility of failing to meet its debt obligations if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, a real possibility if substantial budget cuts demanded by an ultraconservative contingent of Republicans are not made. The resulting default, he notes, could be devastating not only for the U.S. economy, but for the worldwide economy as well. 

“Each election, instead of helping to resolve the differences, is becoming a new approach to the precipice where everything is at stake and losing can have catastrophic consequences,” he notes in the piece.

“The causes that have led to this situation are complex and multifaceted,” Royo continues in the essay, “and include the dramatic increase in inequalities, dissatisfaction with a political system that has not provided answers or met the expectations of citizens, and the cultural alienation of a very important sector of the country’s population, which is observing with growing concern the social transformations that are taking place.”

Sustaining a strong democracy is essential for the United States, he insists, and serves as a model for other nations. Royo, a native of Spain who moved to the United States decades ago to attend graduate school, recalls the turbulent politics of his own youth — the later chapters of Generalissimo Francisco Franco’s dictatorship and the 1981 failed coup d’etat in which Civil Guard soldiers held the Congress of Deputies hostage for 18 hours. 

“When I came to the U.S., this was the shining light — the model for other countries all around the world,” he said during a recent interview. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think we’d find ourselves in the situation we are in now.”