164th Augustana Commencement address, May 25, 2024
Remarks from President Andrea Talentino
Congratulations to all today’s graduates. Congratulations for all you have achieved over the last four years, and the many ways in which you have grown, developed, and defined yourself. This is an exciting and hard-earned day. Welcome to all the family and friends, faculty, staff, and trustees who have made this day possible in one way or another. Welcome also to our speaker and her family and loved ones.
Today is a day of great celebration. Today is also a day to think soberly about the world you are now meeting as a full-fledged adult. It is a world of unrest, division, and confrontation. It is also a world in which democracy, what many of us think of as the bedrock of this nation and a beneficial trend for the world, is increasingly in decline.
An article from earlier this year confirmed that democracy’s appeal around the world is ebbing. A majority of randomly chosen citizens surveyed in 24 countries expressed dissatisfaction with how democracy is working in their own country. Although a majority still said democracy was a good system of government, the number rating it as very good had declined (Ricardo, 2024). Websites warning of a threat to democracy, not just in the United States but around the world, are easy to find. The CIVICA alliance in Europe describes democracy in our era as volatile and declining in quality. At the same time, it argues that the potential for democratic reform is higher than ever. That is why I raise this topic today, because I know that you, the Augustana graduates of 2024, are precisely the people to grapple with this conundrum.
Almost 35 years ago, Samuel Huntington, a professor at Harvard, published a book titled The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, describing the rapid expansion of democracy in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Between 1974 and 1990 at least 30 countries had transitioned to democracy, roughly doubling the number of democracies in the world. The number increased even more between the year Huntington’s book was published, 1991, and the turn of the millennium in 2000.
Huntington described the first wave of democratization as beginning in the 1820s with the widening of suffrage in the United States and continuing until 1926, producing 29 democracies in that time. A reverse wave briefly gripped the world over the period of the two world wars, reducing the number of democracies to 12 by 1942. But the aftermath of World War II saw a second great wave, driven primarily by decolonization, that peaked in the early 1960s and produced an additional 30 democracies worldwide by the early 1970s.
The Third Wave began in the 1970s, fueled by economic growth, the decline in legitimacy of authoritarian regimes, and the Catholic Church’s increasing commitment to opposing authoritarianism. It gained strength at the tail end of the century as the end of the Cold War opened the potential for liberalizing transitions. Although scholars have continued to argue about Huntington’s thesis and definitions, the essential concept of democratic waves has been reaffirmed numerous times, as has the continuing, if gradual, expansion of democracies worldwide into the early 21st century.
The wave concept is important because it means that democratic transitions tend to be clustered in space and time rather than occurring randomly. Unfortunately, based on Huntington’s findings, reverse waves are similar. Even by 2000, a little before most of our graduates today were born, there was evidence that we might be entering a reverse wave, a trend that is easily confirmed today. Freedom House defined 2023 as the “18th consecutive year of decline in global freedom” and estimates that only 20 percent of the world now lives in what are classified as free countries.
This reverse wave has been long and consistent. Just as expanding economic prosperity once fueled democracy’s expansion, rising inequality and economic stagnation now contribute to its decline. Societies are fracturing, even in traditionally stable countries. Economic crisis is a significant contributor to the decline of pluralism, which Freedom House defines as the peaceful coexistence of people with different political ideas, religions, or ethnic identities, and identifies as the largest cause for democracy’s ebbing strength and appeal.
As recently as 2005, Freedom House described the world as becoming consistently more free, with just over 80 countries that year improving their level of freedom. The trend since has been all negative, with freedom declining in 55 countries in 2023 and improving in only 20.
The topic of how democracy rises and falls, not only around the globe but in the United States, should interest you because this is the primary question that your adult years are likely to engage, in one way or another. In the United States we have taken the solidity of our democracy for granted, believing that the commitment to our Constitution and rule of law will ensure sustainability. Yet we see almost daily how the questions that animated the creation of the Constitution remain deeply contested today, 235 years later. Combined with economic challenge and overall uncertainty, they can push us away from democratic behaviors as surely as we were once pushed toward them.
Since the earliest days of our nation, before it even was a republic, we have grappled with the question of how to give government enough authority while not giving it too much. Our earliest attempt at government, the Articles of Confederation, failed in that regard by making the central government too weak, so that the new country was composed of states that were not united and could manage their affairs in ways that were detrimental to other states. The Constitution began the process of changing that by establishing a stronger central government, but even then, the balance of power between federal and state authority was a source of contention. It was not until 1819, in the case of McCullough v. Maryland, that federal law was clearly articulated as paramount over state law. It was not until a century later, in the 1920s, that a series of court cases asserted that the first 10 amendments to the Constitution, what we know as the Bill of Rights, could be enforced against state governments.
Other pieces of American democracy evolved as well. The expansion of voting rights is one example. Rules preventing monopoly and establishing regulations that limit corruption in every area from corporations to transportation to business practices, are another. Landmark Supreme Court cases on topics such as civil rights, disability access, education, and the rights of the accused are yet another. In all cases we have tended to assume that the natural trend is to become more democratic, more open, more just, more equitable.
But the earliest articulations of political philosophy did not see democracy as a natural good, or a positive path of evolution. In the ancient Greek world, where democracy was born, two of the most seminal political philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, believed democracy was fundamentally flawed and even, in Aristotle’s view, a deviant form of more desirable systems. Although they recognized the potential benefits of democratic rule, they also viewed it as potentially dangerous.
For Aristotle, the major problem with democracy was that it could too easily neglect community and commitment to serving the common good. While he clearly believed that the mass of citizens should have the right to rule a political entity, he also believed that the mass would pursue its own interests to the detriment of overall good. He feared the tyranny of the majority, particularly a majority without a strong public interest.
Aristotle raised the central tension that we still struggle with, the issue of whether “justness” of rule resides in the system that produces it or the substantive elements it contains.
Plato similarly had little faith in democracy because he believed it provided excessive freedom and catered too much to individual interests, which would likely lead either to anarchy or the rise of tyrants and demogogues. He warned that democracy would lead to ineffective and selfish leaders who were expert at catering to popular opinion but not at leading a nation, a criticism we may recognize today.
And while Plato believed perhaps too much in the value of experts, he argued that effective leadership required both broad knowledge and particular understanding of the workings and needs of a polity, and for that reason he viewed democracy as dangerous. He did not trust that enough people had those skills and he doubted the ability of leaders to lead well. Aristotle was slightly more optimistic as he believed that democracy might be shaped and limited in some ways—he probably would have liked our Electoral College for example—but still considered its success unlikely because he believed few would accept or support limitation.
The concerns of both philosophers recall Alexis de Tocqueville’s statement in his book Democracy in America, “Nothing is more wonderful than the art of being free, but nothing is harder to learn how to use than freedom.”
This is the complex world you are entering as Augustana graduates. A world that is uncertain about and frustrated by the progress of democracy. A world in which many countries, not just our own, are questioning their social, economic, and political foundations and looking with trepidation at the accelerating impact of technology. It is also a world that you are more than ready for, and I for one am glad that you are the people who will take the lead, over the next decades, in addressing all these challenges.
You have shown, over the last four years, not only the traits that we always expect from Augustana Vikings—a willingness to think deeply and carefully about issues, the curiosity to look beyond the easy answers, a sensitivity to those whose experience is different from your own and a desire to embrace different perspectives to build better solutions. But you have also shown, repeatedly, a commitment to work with and for others.
Your parents will be happy to know, and you will not be surprised to learn, that these are exactly the skills that employers seek, which is why I have faith in our future. Because as you step into your new roles, you will shape that future. I will also note that these are the habits that Aristotle and Plato most feared were lacking in citizens. Aristotle feared group think and Plato feared lack of ability. You are living proof that neither need be decisive in the progress of global democracy, because you are not only committed to the good of the whole but you also bring the expertise and depth of thinking that is needed to lead well.
At the same time, you will be tested. As you already know, the pressures to endorse a particular view, to conform to a party line, to reduce complexity to the sharpest shades of black and white, are immense. You will need to continually orient those around you to accepting complexity when they crave simplicity.
The difficult questions that we face today will not fade away. Whether considering the evolution of democracy or the most vexing questions of climate change, you will be faced constantly with the need to determine what you believe and why. Do not shy away from that. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “When you have decided what you believe, what you feel must be done, have the courage to stand alone and be counted.” Know that your expertise, and your commitment to community, and your leadership, are essential for the success of democracy and are needed now more than ever.
Pauli Murray an activist, writer, attorney, and eventual Episcopal priest, once remarked that their personal quest for equality was never successful, but that “I have lived to see the thesis that I was operating upon vindicated.” Born in 1910, they were arrested 15 years before Rosa Parks for refusing to give up their seat on a segregated bus. They were denied admission to the University of North Carolina law school because of their race. They were rejected from Harvard because of their gender.
So Murray went to Howard. They wrote a book, States’ Laws on Race and Color, that Thurgood Marshall used in preparing to argue Brown v Board of Education at the Supreme Court. Eventually they became the first black deputy attorney general of the state of California, the first black person to earn a JSD, Doctor of Juridical Science, at Yale University, and were appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women.
Like Pauli Murray, not every effort you undertake will be successful. But know that when it isn’t, you are still laying the groundwork for others to take up the cause, whatever it may be. Pauli Murray stood, sometimes alone, and they counted. Even when their efforts failed, they remained a tireless advocate for racial, gender, and what we now recognize as LGBTQ rights. They said, “Hope is a song in a weary throat,” and I encourage you to contribute to that song, no matter how weary your own throat may be, because your excellence will inspire others.
You know several things from your time at Augustana. First, that commitment to community makes us better. It may make solutions more complex, it may slow how we approach a problem, but envisioning how we can contribute to others is the backbone of a Lutheran education and the centerpiece of much that you have done here. Do not forget that. Second, that a strong community is composed of a variety of views and experiences, some of which are easy for us to understand and some of which are not. But the combination of the whole brings better ideas and better initiatives, so our commitment must be to embrace the unfamiliar and the different.
And third, you know that the answers that count most are never easy. If it seems simple then your answer is probably simplistic, and not worthy of the problem. If the basic questions of democratic governance were easy, we would not have needed to debate them over thousands of years.
We stand, globally, at a historic moment. Do we continue to slide backwards, focused on recrimination, division, and insularity, or do we move forward to revive the push for greater equality, greater freedoms, better societies? One thing is clear. Citizens matter. Each wave of democratization has been characterized by citizens stepping up to demand more and better, and holding their governments to account. Each reverse wave has been characterized by governments exerting increasing power at the expense of citizens, and citizens, in turn, both promoting and accepting that shift.
Congratulations, Augustana graduates of 2024. You have done great things while on our campus. As you leave campus, remember this: Eighteen years of declining democracy is enough. Use your freedom wisely. The fourth wave of democratization is yours, as long as you stand to be counted.
Thank you.
Sources:
Murray, P. 2018. Song in a Weary Throat. Liveright.
Riccardi, N. 2024. Democracy’s appeal is slipping as nations across much of the world hold elections, a poll finds. Associated Press. Accessed 5/10/2024.
Roosevelt, E. The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Digital Edition (2017). accessed 5/15/2024.
De Tocqueville, A. 2002. Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, translators. Democracy in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.