Daniel Ziblatt and Maximilian Steinbeis: Is American Democracy Unreformable? The Anatomy of an Enduring Political Crisis

The current crisis of the American political system is not caused
simply by cult-like following of a demagogic leader but is more
endemic, rooted in the structure of the U.S. constitution. The U.S.
constitution, written in a pre-democratic era, is the oldest
written constitution in the world. America has democratized over
the past two centuries, like other countries, as citizens have done
the hard work of making their constitutions more democratic. But
over the past fifty years, this effort has essentially stopped,
thwarted by a constitution that now appears almost unamendable.
Does this make reform impossible? This conversation will reflect on
the predicament of an essentially unchangeable constitution and
what this means for the future of democracy in America. Daniel
Ziblatt is Director of the WZB Research Unit Transformations of
Democracy. Maximilian Steinbeis is a legal journalist and chief
editor of Verfassungsblog.