Introduction: What is Backsliding & What Does the Law Have to do With it?

   My name is Lizzie Hahn & the purpose of this blog, "Law & Ideologies: The Backslide of Democracy," is to address the problem of the backsliding of democracy in the United States and what the language surrounding the law has to do with it. Throughout this blog, I will do two things in order to further examine the relationship that the language surrounding law means to how our society functions & what that means for individuals. I will both analyze a few prominent supreme court cases and their proceedings, and I will do some short interviews with individuals to see how these concepts are perceived to the people who are directly impacted. 

    I would like to start this blog by defining what I mean by the "backslide of democracy" and what relevance this concept has to language. The annual review of political science defines the phrase "democratic backsliding" as the decline, deterioration, or regression away from the democratic characteristics of a political system which is also commonly known as autocratization. Within regimes such as that found within the United States, which is in its most technical form, a democracy, backsliding refers specifically to the degradation of the quality of democracy, which leads to the degradation of the democratic systems which are in place within said system. Democratic characteristics include a wide variety of things, namely the existence of a relevant and functional constitution, popular sovereignty (meaning that the power lies with citizens), majority rule, individual rights (specifically refers to human rights in more advanced democracies and societies), free and fair elections, widespread citizen participation, freedom of speech, media and assembly, equality and equity, and last but not least, the existence of a prominent and effective rule of law (Guardian).

    The importance of looking at this phenomenon of democratic backsliding is dual-pronged. First, this phenomenon begs the question; why does democracy matter? Then it begs the question; what does the law have to do with this process?

    The answer to both of these questions has one thing in common; Language. Language matters at the forefront of this phenomenon because language is the very thing that brought about the birth of democracy and law as mere concepts and is simultaneously the very thing that has allowed them to develop into the vastly complex systems that they have come to be. Language, in many senses, IS the structure of law and democracy, and thus, we must look to it to understand its shortcomings. 

    Democracy matters because, on a basic level, it helps to ensure that society achieves a baseline of human rights, equality, participation, and security which allows said societies to develop in a way that leads to an overall increase in quality of life (UN). The language involved in developing and creating democracies is the primary determinant of how successful that democracy will be in achieving its overarching goals.

    This is where law, or more specifically rule of law, comes into play. Rule of law is perhaps the upmost important mechanism in a functioning democracy because it allows the enforcement of democratic ideals through institutions (William & Mary). Without the ability to enforce ideals, ideals often fall null. For example, without the ability to effectively enforce concepts like fair and free elections, that important democratic process falls flat on its face. The problem here is that rule of law is quite vulnerable to instability, and we are seeing an increase in those important ideals falling flat on their faces. When the language of the law leaves so much grey space in its interpretation (as it often does), it can leave governments and systems susceptible to people and groups who will undermine democratic ideals for their own benefit (or for the benefit of groups they may belong to).

    This blog will focus most importantly on the class concepts of "Law & Ideologies", "Frames" and "Speech Acts". This blog will also subliminally touch on concepts that are more dependent on individual experiences, such as frames, social class, race, gender, and more. "Law & Ideologies" in the context of this class refers to two concepts; law & ideology. In lingual anthropology, the law refers to customary and cultural understandings of the law, including institutions and positions such as courts, governments, lawyers, and police officers (Dent, Week 13, Lecture 1). Law also refers to our understanding of the intentions of the law and how societies deal with how they define law and what is included in law (Dent, Week 13, Lecture 1). "Speech acts" refers to what we do with language and what structures and expectations are relevant to what can be done with language (Agar, Speech Acts). In reference to the law, speech acts refer to what language, in the form of law, does and can do, and what that means to us as individuals (Dent, Week 13, Lecture 1). Lastly, "Frames" as defined by Alexander Dent, refer to a structure of expectations for the production and reception of discourse and will be important to understanding the power that law can and does have. 

    The argument I would like to make is that by looking inward at our own relationships with democracy or lack thereof, and the law, we can come to understand why our democracy is regressing and how we might prevent that.  

    *IMPORTANT NOTE: I recognize that for the majority of history, specifically in the United States, democracy has NEVER functioned as it should in its truest and fullest form because it has almost always excluded large populations of people on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, income, and more. This exclusion of large groups of people has given many people intersectional identities that have never reaped the benefits of democracy. What I am aiming to address is that at some point in time, it seemed our democracy was working on expanding its reach to ALL people, but within the last decade, we have seen unprecedented levels of democratic regression.

    *NOTE ALSO: the word count of the original content (basically everything except for the survey responses) for this project is 5780