A survey taken in February, 2017 of 1,571 political
scientists on democracy in America reveals a possible problem regarding the
extent to which government officials are sanctioned for misconduct. More than
half of the respondents believed that the United States only partly meets or
does not meet this criterion, whereas about 80 percent of the scholars insisted
that the criterion is essential or important to democracy.[1]
I submit that partisanship is a major obstacle to performance being able to
meet expectations.
The full essay is at "Same-Party-Affiliation and Misconduct."
1. Claire C. Miller and Kevin Quealy, “Democracy
in America: How Is It Doing?” The New
York Times, February 23, 2017.