Noah Feldman, Columnist

Will U.S. Democracy Survive? Here’s How to Figure That Out.

Yes, there are scary threats, but government institutions aren’t caving the way they did before the Civil War. In other words, it’s more like 1968 than 1858.

December 28, 2021 at 12:30 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Jan. 6, 2021.
Photographer: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

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Are we living in 1858 or 1968?

That is, are America’s divisions so profound and political institutions so crippled that we are poised for a breakdown akin to the Civil War? Or is the current polarization the product of conflicting social forces that can be gradually reconciled or redirected into more healthy electoral competition?