INTERVIEW
13 but the Colombian referendum surprised me the most. Several days before voters went to the polls, the agreement was signed in Cartagena in the presence of several Heads of State and the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon. So we were already celebrating the beginning of the peace process. And when the result turned out to be no, I really could not believe it.
Election of Donald Trump as the next President of the United States
Both Brexit and the Colombian peace deal were put to referendums, examples of direct elecotral democracy in which each citizen that is eligible to vote has an equal say in determining the outcome. In the US, the surprise victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections resulted not from the popular vote— which he lost by a
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Date: 04 / 12 / 2016 Ref: Constitutional referendum Turnout: 42.09 % Outcome: 79.59 % for, 15.40 % against
historic margin— but through the Electoral College, a complicated system of representation originally designed to ensure that rural states were not disadvantaged by their smaller populations. That Trump’ s opponent, Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote has been little consolation to many people who were shocked by the outcome that has made Donald Trump the next President of the United States. E2C asked Kelly Litz, a student from the US currently following the master program here at IOB, for her thoughts on Trump’ s victory and what it means for democracy in the US.
E2C: Many people were surprised and even shocked by the outcome of the election in favor of Trump. Why do you think the outcome was so unexpected?
KL: A few things contributed to the outcome being so unexpected. First, all the polls and political
Date: 04 / 12 / 2016 Ref: Constitutional referendum Turnout: 65.48 % Outcome: 40.89 % for, 59.11 % against pundits seemed to unanimously predict a Clinton win. Even a week before the election it seemed Trump had unsurmountable obstacles to overcome in order to reach the presidency. But beyond the inaccurate predictions, the election result was shocking because Trump is unlike any other major party nominee in recent history, and the many Americans who scoffed at him and his message had difficulty understanding how it could resonate with so many of their fellow citizens.
E2C: Were you also surprised? Why / why not?
KL: I was also shocked, and not just because the win was unexpected. I was shocked that so many Americans, who watched the same speeches and read the same news articles that I did, could come to such a drastically different conclusion about Trump’ s capabilities to be our president. The election cycle was scandal after scandal, yet none of it made a difference on November 8.
E2C: Trump has promoted / defended ideas that are inconsistent with what are usually considered to be democratic values, yet he was democratically chosen. Thus it appears that democratic means can be used to foster undemocratic outcomes. What does this conundrum mean for the future of democracy in the US?
KL: It has been said that the means to undoing democracy are built right into the system, and we have
Exchange to change January 2017