Protest at Trump Tower, New York. (c) RIA Novosti / Alexey Filippov. All rights reserved.The unexpected victory of Donald Trump has been widely understood as a triumph for populism and a defeat, if not an existential threat, for liberal democracy. The main danger from populists is not simply that they make a mess of things or undo liberal reforms. In every country they take power, they seek to usurp it, dismantling the mechanisms for its peaceful handover and systems of checks and balances.
To protect democracy from populism means, first of all, to protect existing procedures and institutions from the fickle and easily manipulated “will of the people”. If Trump doesn’t set out to destroy basic democratic institutions, he will simply be another bad president, replaced after four or eight years. But everything in his post-election behaviour suggests the opposite. This is why any reform of the American political system initiated by Trump — such as an attempt to replace the universally hated electoral college system — is dangerous, however reasonable it may appear at first glance.
In a democracy, procedures are more important than the “will of the majority”, especially since the term “majority” is an abstraction — the best that can be achieved is a majority of those who turned out to vote. The existence of the electoral college system determines both the way electoral campaigns are run and voters’ behaviour. Voters were less active in states like New York and Texas, where there was no doubt about the outcome — Clinton would win New York and Texas would go to Trump. Swing states such as Florida saw a higher motivation on the part of voters.
