Americans believe that democracy is in danger—83% said so in an NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll in December of 2022. 45% of the participants felt that the threat came from Democrats. 49% blamed the Republicans.

Democracy’s peril is, as these results show, closely tied in our minds to the tribal warfare that surrounds us. It can be hard to step back from the battles and look for underlying causes. When we do, we find that forces beyond anyone’s control are at work.

The roots of today’s divisions run deep into history, all the way back to the revival of city life a thousand years ago. Professor Dorsey Armstrong, in her Great Courses lecture titled, ”The Medieval World,” tells us that at that time “we see medieval townspeople becoming less and less like their rural counterparts.”

Peasants who abandoned the countryside and moved into cities became business people and skilled workers, grew in wealth, attended schools and universities, and came into contact with other ways of life. New ideas began to percolate. Time-honored rules and traditions began to weaken.

The traditional values and beliefs of rural communities have been in retreat ever since, as cities have grown ever larger. Today’s battles between conservatives wanting to preserve traditions and liberals wanting to replace them is the latest chapter in that long history.

Steven Pinker, in his book, “Enlightenment Now,” cites public opinion polls that reveal the growth of liberal ideas in eleven advanced nations. They show that each generation since the early 20^th century has been more liberal than the one before about race, homosexuality, and feminism.

A recent research article by Davide Luca and his co-authors (Sage Journals, 2-2-23) ties this trend, and the widening chasm between liberals and conservatives, to the growth of cities around the world. Their paper documents the obvious—"marked and significant urban-rural differences in progressive values, defined as tolerant attitudes to immigration, gender rights and family life.”

There’s some truth in the conservative story that blames liberal elites for these changes. A language analysis conducted by the Economist Magazine and reported in their December 16 edition, for example, revealed a strong and growing liberal slant in news reporting. But something other than an elitist conspiracy is driving liberalism’s dominance of education and journalism. It’s a river that runs beyond anyone’s control, a force of nature that drives people who live in cities away from traditional ideas and values.

Mr. Luca and his co-authors make the important point that liberal ideas arising from the cities can produce a backlash when they come on too fast and when people are living with economic, political, or social insecurity. Both are happening in America and other economically advanced countries today. People feel the ground shifting beneath them.

Our democratic system struggles to perform as it should amidst the desperation, divisiveness, extremism, and—above all—mutual distrust that accompanies this era of rapid change and insecurity. The fears that Americans have for democracy’s survival are well-founded. Taking a stand against leaders and groups that undermine it is a civic duty.

But it’s just as important to look into the machinery of our democratic system—the nuts, bolts, cogs, gears, and all the rest—to make sure it’s in good repair and able to handle the stresses that the times are placing on it. A representative democracy must be capable of responding to the needs and hopes of its people, if it’s to survive. It must, in other words, allow them to feel that they are indeed being represented.

I’ve identified, in past articles, institutions that fail to meet that test in our rapidly urbanizing and evolving society. Our system of primary elections is the most relevant example as we enter this election season. Others, such as gerrymandered election districts, the Electoral College, unequal representation in the Senate, and the filibuster, also need urgent attention.

We may not be able to end the social and political divisions that arise from the growth of cities, but we can ensure that our institutions are up to that challenge. The noise and passions of day-to-day party politics make it hard to focus on this issue, but nothing is more critical to the survival of democracy.

Lowell Harp is a retired school psychologist who served school districts in Ogle County. His column runs monthly in The Ogle County Life. For previous articles, you can follow him on Facebook at http://fb.me/lowellharp.