After 16 days of closed museums, half-empty federal buildings, unnaturally quiet streets, and tens of thousands of workers left in existential limbo, the lights are back on in Washington. But, while the shutdown of the US government, initiated by radical congressional Republicans seeking to block implementation of President Barack Obama’s health care legislation, is over — at least for now — three enduring lessons have emerged.
First, the next time the Eurozone crisis flares up, the US will simply have to bite its tongue; after all, the shutdown spectacle revealed pathologies no less severe than those that have characterised the European Union’s economic and political negotiations over the past five years. Irresponsible behaviour threatening the health of the global economy? Check.
Political posturing and outlandish claims foreclosing any possibility of compromise? Check. Breathtaking brinkmanship and 11th-hour decision-making leaving all bystanders wondering whether this time the cart might in fact go over the cliff? Check.
Yes, the shutdown was a clear symptom of deep political dysfunction, stemming from the politicised demarcation of electoral districts and the distorting effects of America’s campaign-finance system. Nonetheless, it is noteworthy that the entire crisis played out according to constitutional rules.
Indeed, as the deadline for raising the debt ceiling neared, Henry Aaron, a distinguished senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, pointed out that the US Constitution requires the president “to spend what Congress has instructed him to spend, to raise only those taxes Congress has authorised him to impose, and to borrow no more than Congress authorises”.
Honouring all three of those legal obligations simultaneously is impossible if Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling, but raising the debt ceiling without Congressional approval, though illegal and an impeachable offence, was the least-bad choice. Even in the face of deeper political polarisation than the US has seen in many decades (and, in many places, a visceral hatred of the country’s first African-American president), Americans and their politicians understand that breaking the rules means dissolving the constitutional glue that holds the polity together.
This means that the cure for the current dysfunction will be found at the ballot box rather than in the streets. And it is this collective commitment to the law governing how political power can be exercised that is the essence of liberal democracy. But Americans are in no mood to celebrate.
Indeed, the second conclusion to be drawn from the US government shutdown is the virtual disappearance of American triumphalism. Chest-thumping exceptionalism has given way to a more sober patriotism, in which ordinary citizens recognise the long-term trends eroding the promise of equal opportunity, particularly the shortcomings that beset the country’s health care, education, and infrastructure systems.
The final lesson of the shutdown is that political systems of every kind benefit from the addition of women. Many commented on the critical role played by six women senators — Republicans and Democrats — in reaching the compromises needed to end the crisis. These women have maintained relationships with one another across the partisan divide, while those among their male colleagues have steadily deteriorated, giving way to competitive grandstanding and vituperation.
The world should note. Women are not necessarily better than men at governing, but they often have different perspectives and habits of engagement that can be essential for cutting through the standoffs created by the need to defend male egos.
The US government is back at work, for now. Negotiations for a real budget that all sides can live with are beginning.
But the country’s social and economic divisions will ultimately find political solutions, through elections and the efforts of millions of Americans to achieve fundamental reforms. As frustrating and embarrassing as the last several weeks have been, it could have been much worse.
— Project Syndicate, 2013
Anne-Marie Slaughter is president and CEO of the New America Foundation and professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.
