Trump at CPAC conference The Washington Post

How Trump is Testing Democracy

Donald Trump is not just challenging political convention to “shake things up”; he is testing the foundations of US democracy. If he manages to identify a weak point, all assumptions about the US and its global role could change substantially.

TOKYO – World leaders seem to be at a loss about how to approach relations with US President Donald Trump, given his worrying positions and often-bizarre behavior toward politicians and the media, allies and enemies alike. Trump is not just challenging political convention to “shake things up”; he is testing the foundations of US democracy. That test has the potential to transform existing assumptions about the United States and its global role.

Trump was elected largely for one reason: a substantial share of US voters were fed up with the state of the economy and the politicians who had overseen it. Globalization – the proliferation of flows of labor, goods, services, money, information, and technology worldwide – seemed to be benefiting everyone except them.

These voters had a point. While globalization, and the trade openness that underpins it, has the potential to enrich the entire global economy, so far the richest have captured a hugely disproportionate share of the gains. In the US, wages for the top 1% of earners increased by 138% from 1980 to 2013, while wages for the bottom 90% grew by just 15%.

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