Storming the Capitol: ‘No Democracy Is Protected from Such Outbursts’

Despite its safeguards, democracy may be in danger everywhere, notes the researcher Pierre-Étienne Vandamme.

It is the most basic democratic value, namely the peaceful transition of power, that is under attack in Washington, observes Pierre-Étienne Vandamme, head of research in political philosophy at the National Funds for Scientific Research, Free University of Brussels, in an interview.

What is the symbolism of the photos of protesters invading the Capitol building last Wednesday?

Even if the photos show “only” several thousand of Donald Trump’s most fanatical supporters, they are still shocking, and all the more so since blood flowed inside the Capitol and someone was killed. This brings to mind the assertion by the Italian philosopher Norberto Bobbio that the principal function of democracy is the transition of one government to another without a bloodbath. Thus, the fact that force was needed to stop the protesters carries very strong symbolism, even though things appear to have calmed down.

Could we say that these protesters have blasphemed against democracy?

In a way yes, since the key to stability in a democracy, and its very foundation, is the peaceful transference of power. This has taken place for centuries in the United States, whatever the other defects of its democracy. The simple dignity with which the Obama administration yielded its place to Trump in 2016, despite the widespread opposition to Trump among elites, impressed me very much at the time. In contrast to such examples, what is happening now is that the stability of a democracy reflects the attitudes of politicians, not just the institutions. Attitudes like Barack Obama’s preserve democracy, whereas Trump’s threaten it, despite the continuity of democratic institutions.

So does Trump’s attitude and refusal to accept the voters’ verdict mean democracy is in real danger?

It may make it through in the short term, but in the long term, there may be a gradual erosion of loyalty to democratic institutions. Basically, a democracy depends on respect for its institutions. The actions of a leader like Trump inciting rebellion against the democratic process might be seen as contributing to such an erosion of support for democratic institutions among the general population.

Could it also happen here in Belgium?

Europe did not need to wait for Trump to witness a decline in democratic institutions. Just look at Poland and Hungary. Now the fact that one of the oldest democracies in the world, one that has never hesitated to spread democracy to other countries, is undergoing such an event is highly significant. Here in Belgium, we enjoy the safeguard of a proportionally representative system that cooperates according to reasoned consensus. Majority democracies, by contrast, are generally more divided and unstable because they have only two large parties. Nonetheless, no safeguard can completely protect democracies from such outbursts like the occupation of the Capitol, since the health of any democracy depends more on the attitudes of its citizens and politicians. Democracy can therefore become endangered when, as in the U.S. today, many people feel that the other party is the enemy that must be vanquished rather than fellow citizens with the right to hold different opinions.

What can Joe Biden do to restore democracy in America?

This will be a very complicated task. One of the greatest drawbacks to American democracy is that the country is practically ungovernable. However appealing on paper, its system of checks and balances is paralyzing in practice. This was evident in Obama’s problems getting his health care legislation passed. It is therefore necessary to reform American democracy, but the way it is designed prevents such a thing. Given that, I am not really optimistic about it. Not to mention that many American citizens cannot vote owing to complicated registration procedures, and the power of those who can vote is limited by the influence of lobbies and rich donors who can lend weight to any cause they wish. American democracy was already in decline for a long time before this, but what with the attack on the peaceful transition of power now underway, Biden will have to govern a deeply weakened democratic state. This week’s events are not the end of it, as demonstrated by the negative reactions of the majority of Americans to the storming of the Capitol, but they tore another hole in it.