The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure, by Yascha Mounk (A Council on Foreign Relations Book, Penguin Random House Press, 2022, 356 pp, $28)
Every Word is Important
When I was in grad school, many decades ago, as an animal genetics student, I was required to take a course on plant genetics. As if plants weren't intricate enough already due to their complex life cycles, Dr. Phillips never took a breath - every word was important and I resorted to listening to the recordings repeatedly to fully understand it all.
So, too, is The Great Experiment but with one exception - it is fascinating!
Our book club selected The Great Experiment after two sessions of discussing possible books and I was excited: the selection I read was a thrilling human-interest sample. (I would have liked more human-interest examples.)
Diverse Democracies
Humans are groupies, social animals, just like dogs are. But, for humans, there are in-groups and out-groups which have evolved in the US to one in-group and one out-group. You either belong to the group in power, in quantity, and are accepted, or you belong to the "other" group.
I had expected The Great Experiment to be a psychological-sociological, perhaps even anthropological treatise of why we form groups, how many groups we tend to belong to and other facets of group versus individual life. Instead, German-born Yascha Mounk, now affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, has written a well-organized thesis on the state of the human condition in various large societies, like nations.
Immigration is a fractious issue. Are immigrants merely temporary citizens like the Chinese in Thailand? Will they always remain second-class citizens in other countries? Why do upper class citizens immigrate to the US, like the family Concepcion? Will minorities always remain the underclass? With weak border controls, residents tend to feel hostile toward immigrants and the opposite is also true, that with strong border controls, residents feel more welcoming towards immigrants.
Parts One, Two and Three, and the Readership
Now that we can put a finger on "diverse democracy," we start reading what happens "When Diverse Societies Go Wrong" (problems of diverse democracies), continue with "What Diverse Democracies Should Become" (a vision of the future) and finish with "How Diverse Societies Can Succeed," ending on a note of hope for the world to come, with a goal that will be hard but not impossible to achieve.
Each of the three parts begins with an introduction while the book itself ends with a conclusion and each chapter is a cliff-hanger; the final paragraph sets the stage for the following chapter so well that you want to continue reading right away. But first, it behooves you to contemplate the chapter just read.
More than one person in the book club mentioned the long, convoluted sentences which do not make for easy late-night reading. Even though the author is a native German, his command of the English language is superb, but he borders on using big words when little ones will do. Many sentences will have to be read twice but The Great Experiment is worth it.
My Most Memorable Chapter Six
This reviewer's favorite chapter is "Must the Many Become One?" because it combines history, food and play!
Beginning about 1900 and lasting through post-World War 2, the United States could be called a Melting Pot: immigrants rushed to learn English and become immersed in our culture as fast as possible, even to the extent that they quickly Americanized their names. Ideas that proliferated included assimilation, unification, cohesiveness and homogeneity.
More recently we have become a country not of homogeneity, however, but of heterogeneity and the term for that is sometimes referred to as a 'salad bowl.' Descriptions of this new model include fragmentation, parallel cultures, a mosaic, isolation, subcultures or multi-cultural, divisiveness, and even toleration of FGM and honor killings.
Hopefully we will evolve to a mid-point between these two paradigms - perhaps termed a 'public park,' where people can play alone or in groups, where groups can intersect or not, with options and variety, yet with rules for visitors, and with a vibrant space for chance encounters. One will experience peaceful bustling in a public park, heterogeneity but not fragmentation.
The Chapter 10 Problem
It is far easier to identify what is wrong than to muster the resources to do what is right. So, what will become of our diverse democracies?
Who is Yascha Mounk?
A native of Germany who received his degrees at Cambridge and Harvard and now is affiliated with The Atlantic Monthly, and also Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies (SAIC), Yascha Mounk works about 20 miles from me, so of course, I contacted him. Unfortunately he is unavailable for the next six months, working on his sixth book.
And What I Would Change
Mounk often mentions the political scientists or anthropologists who carried out studies or authored books but does not cite the references. As a scientist I look things up and was frustrated not to be able to unless I searched online for the study authors mentioned. Then, lo and behold, I realized that the extensive notes section at the back of the book had all the information I needed to find what I needed! I am more accustomed to footnotes than endnotes. I guess the liberal arts are different from scientific publications!
Food for Thought
The Great Experiment is an excellent candidate for the Chautauqua Prize, a national literary award that "celebrates a work of fiction or literary/narrative non-fiction that provides a richly rewarding reading experience and honors the author for a significant contribution to the literary arts." (CHQ.org)
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