Pretty Boy Democracy

Mark Graber

A good deal of my recent work focuses on non-legal aspects of constitutionalism. For example, constitutional law requires that the president be 35 years or older, a citizen of the United States, and get a majority of the electoral vote, etc. Any person who meets those standards is legally qualified to be president of the United States. But the constitutional qualifications were also designed to privilege a certain kind of person. Thus, we might ask constitutional theory questions about a) whether George Bush or Bill Clinton was the sort of person whose election the constitutional system was designed to privilege and b) what sort of persons does the constitutional system for elections presently privilege. Here is some brief thoughts.

The constitution of 1787 was designed to privilege the election of best persons, men (not women)who had a reputation for political integrity and competence. You voted for George Washington because you trusted Washington would do what was right. The constitution throughout much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries privileged the election of party leaders. You voted for James Polk, Grover Cleveland, and John Kennedy, because you were members of their party and supported the party's general platform (this requires lots and lots of qualifications). The constitution of the twenty-first century increasingly privileges the election of pretty boys. Think of Lynn Swann running for governor of Pennsylvania on the ground that he was a star football player and looks good on television. People vote for candidates because they like them personally and feel the candidate is in some ways like them. Clinton plays the saxophone. Bush plays at being a homey frat boy. There are increasingly no policy implications to elections, as was the case with party elections, nor are there much governing implications, since no one really thinks Swann (or Bush) is that competent a governor. What matters is how one appears in the media.

If this is the case, then tinkering with constitutional law is likely to have little impact on public problems. The crucial issue is a)whether I am right about the increase of pretty boy democracy in a media age, b) whether pretty boy democracy is a viable means of governing a twenty-first century polity (maybe it is, maybe the advisors do the real governing), and, if not, c) is there anything culturally or constitutionally that can be done to return to either a partisan system, where the president and other political leaders actually have a mandate to pursue certain policies or an elite system, where the president and other political leaders can be trusted to make intelligent decisions.
Posted 8:55 AM by Mark Graber [link]