Universities in defense of democracy

America's vast wealth and power rest on two pillars: universities and businesses. Universities produce the ideas, research, and education that have made the country a Mecca for the world's best minds. Businesses produce the investment and innovation that have powered America's powerful economic engine. President Donald Trump seems determined to destroy both.

Trump's behavior is not surprising. His ideas on economic policy have always been unconventional, and his hatred of elite academic institutions—which he sees as the source of woke culture—is well-known. What is shocking is that corporate and academic leaders are barely saying a word.

After Trump’s election victory last November, there was cautious optimism in business circles. It seemed like a welcome change from Joe Biden, who had been outspoken against the private sector and supported organized labor and regulation. Trump, on the other hand, had promised low taxes and fewer regulations. His statements about tariffs were alarming, but most assumed they were just false threats. The stock market greeted Trump’s election with new record highs. Tech billionaires who had financed the campaign came to pay their respects at his inauguration.

The weeks that followed showed that there was no room for optimism. Trump attacked the economy with a series of problematic moves, which caused losses in US stock markets to exceed the gains recorded after his November victory. It is difficult to say which of these moves was more disastrous: the high tariffs imposed on America's closest allies (Canada, Mexico and Europe) or the constant boasting, threats and punishment of trade policy, which resulted in indicators of economic uncertainty rising to levels higher than those during the global financial crisis of 2008.

To make matters worse, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has wreaked havoc on the federal government, violating basic legal principles and laying off more than 100.000 government employees. The cutoff in foreign aid may be explained by some cold economic logic, but this administration has also inexplicably cut domestic funding for fundamental research in a wide range of fields, from medical and life sciences to education.

It should be clear to American business leaders by now that Trump is a clear and immediate threat to the system in which they have made their fortune. As damaging as his volatile trade policies are, that danger pales in comparison to the threat to the fundamental institutions that are essential for a successful market economy: the rule of law, the separation of powers, government investment in science and innovation, public infrastructure, and stable and friendly relations with like-minded countries.

Musk owes much of his success to these institutions. Without a well-timed government loan, Tesla would have gone bankrupt; SpaceX has received tens of billions of dollars in government contracts. Yet Trump has rejected all of that for a plan that offers no coherent strategy, let alone solutions to the country's problems.

Trump's threat to American academia is even more obvious. He has significantly reduced government support for basic medical research, and under the guise of combating anti-Semitism, has arbitrarily withheld funding from some of the country's leading universities. Columbia and Johns Hopkins are the prime targets, but other universities (including my own, Harvard) are also under attack.

When the fundamental institutions of democracy are under attack, those who run the world’s largest corporations and academic institutions have a duty to speak out. Yet neither business leaders nor university presidents do so. Instead, they seem to have chosen what Harvard political scientists Ryan D. Enos and Steven Levitsky call “silent acquiescence.” They have concluded that by operating behind the scenes and keeping a low profile, they can avoid the worst.

But, as Enos and Levitsky point out, this strategy is not working. Authoritarian populists like the late Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), Vladimir Putin (Russia), Viktor Orbán (Hungary), Narendra Modi (India), and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkey) are always targeting universities and trampling on academic freedoms. Censorship, whether imposed by the government or embraced as self-censorship, is a price that all academic institutions ultimately pay. Even if they are initially market-friendly, autocrats end up undermining the very institutional foundations of a competitive market economy.

Compared to the other authoritarian figures mentioned, Trump's attack on American democratic institutions is breathtaking in its speed, audacity, and openness. We can no longer say, "He's just talking and will never deliver on his threats." All civil society organizations and public leaders are faced with the gravity of the situation.

Autocrats thrive when their opponents are divided and afraid to speak up. It’s the tragedy of collective action: we all lose together if we’re not prepared to speak up individually. So it’s up to the leading universities and the biggest corporations—the ones with the most credibility and the ones with the most to lose—to do something.

Imagine if the leaders of America’s largest universities and wealthiest corporations—along with labor unions, religious groups, and other civil society organizations—issued a statement loudly and clearly warning of the dangers of undermining the rule of law, academic freedom, and scientific inquiry. Such a gesture would not touch Trump and his allies, but it would embolden, galvanize, and mobilize other democratic forces. Tens of millions of Americans are wondering when someone will finally muster the courage to speak up. If nothing else, those who do will secure their place on the right side of history.

(Project Syndicate; Peščanik.net, translation: Đ. Tomić)