Democracy is America’s unofficial religion not only because of the nation’s unique traditions, but also because democratic impulses reflect our species’ biologically based propensity toward reciprocity, trust, and cooperation. Unfortunately, democracy also institutionalizes our flawed tendency to project cooperative scenarios onto situations where cooperation is inappropriate.

James A. Montanye is a retired consulting economist in Falls Church, Virginia.
DemocracyPhilosophy and Religion
Other Independent Review articles by James A. Montanye
Summer 2018 Digital Revolutions in Public Finance
Winter 2015/16 Does Altruism Exist?: Culture, Genes, and the Welfare of Others
Fall 2014 The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left
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