The Great Experiment Quotes

“in more and more spheres of American life, well-intentioned people who genuinely believe that they are fighting for righteous causes are doing what they can to make racial identity the all-encompassing dividing line of American life.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“modern states have mostly tried to ensure that economic growth would have benefits for all through welfare state programs like unemployment benefits and transfer schemes like the earned income tax credit. To foster the social preconditions for mutual tolerance, diverse democracies should maintain these programs. And in countries with welfare states that still remain woefully incomplete, as in the United States, governments should finally ensure that all citizens gain access to key services like quality health care or core entitlements like paid family leave.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“When members of minority groups have suffered at the hands of their compatriots, any attempt to create a sense of shared destiny between them needs to be premised on an acknowledgment of historical wrongs and a sincere apology for them. When neither that acknowledgment nor that apology is forthcoming, it is unsurprising that many people will refuse to buy into the airbrushed story their country tells about itself—and feel reluctant to embrace a shared identity.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“The best kinds of public spaces allow each person to do their own thing while facilitating unexpected encounters that could lead to lasting connections. Similarly, the kind of diverse democracy we should build must maintain respect for communities that prefer to stay among themselves yet encourage a majority of citizens to embark on a life that is, to some meaningful extent, shared.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Many philosophers are skeptical of all forms of national sentiment. But if you must defend what many of them consider a base and misguided sentiment, there is a kind of consensus about how to go about it. Drawing on the particular story of the founding, they say, you should make the case for “civic patriotism.” To be proud to be an American, for example, is to love the ideals to which the country committed itself in the Constitution”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Our tendency to assemble in groups is responsible not only for the darkest chapters in human history but also for our species’ greatest achievements.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Only one kind of polity has, in the long annals of human history, been conspicuous by its absence: a democracy that grants true equality to a highly diverse set of citizens. And yet dozens of countries around the world are now attempting to construct such a society. That is The Great Experiment. Can it possibly succeed?”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Don’t Ridicule or Vilify; Engage and Persuade:”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Be Willing to Criticize Your Own:”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“So the only way to make real political progress remains what it has always been: to apply your own standards in a consistent manner.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“The rise of populist politicians who denounce their opponents as corrupt or illegitimate is the most important proximate cause for this new era of polarization. But in many countries, its roots lie in a deeper social and cultural divorce between the urban and the rural, the rich and the poor, the highly educated and everybody else.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“bring the administration of American elections closer into line with that of other developed democracies around the world. This would include provisions like automatic voter registration, a greater number of voting locations, free and easy access to secure ID cards, and sensible precautions that curb voter fraud.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Those who want the great experiment to succeed should proudly defend the joys of mutual influence and inspiration against the advocates of cultural purism.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Cultures are fluid constructs that reflect the ever-changing choices and predilections of their members, not static entities that, like a butterfly display at New York’s Museum of Natural History, must be preserved with chloral hydrate.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“A core reason why most citizens of modern democracies have a deep attachment to their countries is, simply, that they love its culture. Though they may be deeply disturbed by some of their country’s problems, and revile many of its injustices, they feel an attachment to the things that help to define it in the everyday: its language and its cities, its celebrities and its television shows, its instinctual habits and its social conventions.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Equal Status: While the two groups might be highly unequal in society at large, they must have relatively equal status in the context in which contact between them takes place. Working alongside each other as colleagues qualifies; working together as boss and subordinate does not. Common Goals: Members of both groups need to work together in pursuit of a shared goal. Pursuing the championship as teammates counts; participating in the same tournament as members of opposing teams does not. Intergroup Cooperation: Members of both groups need to have an incentive to work together cooperatively. Ideally, they need to work together to solve a problem, with each member of the group making a clear contribution. Support from Authorities and Customs: Authority figures need to favor and encourage better intergroup understanding. If a greater mutual understanding is against the law or risks angering your boss, it is far less likely to occur.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“When citizens believe that their tax dollars go to “people like me,” they are more likely to support generous unemployment benefits or spending on public health than when they fear that it goes to people who do not share the same identity.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“The answer is that the human tendency to band together both helps to maintain peace within groups and to foster conflict between them.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“All the evidence suggests that our ability to sustain peaceful and thriving democracies depends, to a large extent, on how we handle humanity’s powerful instinct toward tribalism.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure

“Whether a conflict subsides or escalates depends on the choices of the powerful, the institutions with which they have to contend, and the extent to which ordinary people are able to build trusting and cooperative relationships with one another.”
― Yascha Mounk, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure