The Faculty of Public Governance and International Studies organised a public lecture on American Democracy and Crisis on 6 April at the University's Education Centre. The discussion was moderated by Balázs Mártonffy, Head of the Institute for American Studies at the Eötvös József Research Centre of the University of Public Service.
Stephanie Newbold, associate professor at Rutgers University and editor of the American Review of Public Administration, one of the most prominent overseas journals, stressed in her presentation "American Democracy in crisis - lessons for public sector management and democratic governance" that democracy in America is based on three fundamental components: the rule of law, a strict separation of powers and the foundations provided by the Constitution. With these values, the US sought to become the champion of global democracies and the leader of the free world after 1945. According to the associate professor, it is also essential to talk about the decline in the effectiveness of government administration, once part of the American way of life, at local, state and federal levels: there are considerable challenges in education and housing, and in shaping family, community, civic and religious life. A growing discontent with both parties in recent years is the question of whether the American Dream is still within reach. Can an American child born today be more successful than their parents? There is a growing fear in this country that success can only be achieved by the educated, healthy and well-connected politically. In her talk, Stephanie Newbold reacted to the decline in the normative features of public administration in recent years and the consequences that can be seen in a number of different areas.
Scott Frisch, Fulbright scholar at Ludovika-UPS, founding director and professor at California State University Channel Islands, said in his presentation on the institutional causes and possible consequences of the US "debt ceiling crisis" that the so far artificial crisis is basically caused by the fact that the US federal government reached its agreed debt ceiling of 31.4 trillion dollars in January.
Raising the debt limit has been routine in recent decades, as it requires a simple majority in both houses, but under Clinton, Obama, and now Biden, the Democrats in the House of Representatives have not had a majority. And Republicans are demanding that Congress also vote on significant cost-cutting before the limit is raised. 40 members of the so-called Freedom Caucus are demanding unrealistically high spending cuts.
If a decision is not taken in time because of this stalemate, the end of the story could be the bankruptcy of the federal government. According to experts, if the debt limit is not changed, the state would have to save $1.5 trillion this year and another $14 trillion over the next ten years by cutting costs or drastically raising taxes. This, apart from being virtually impossible, would create a catastrophic economic situation, which would certainly lead to a deep recession and even a global economic crisis.
You can read more about the event on the Hungarian pages of ludovika.hu.
Text by Tibor Sarnyai
Photos by Szilágyi Dénes