O filósofo Michael Lynch publicou o ensaio "Democracy After the Shutdown" no The Stone no qual associa a crise fiscal norte-americana ao surgimento de uma nova força política (ou "filosofia política") para a qual a própria viabilidade da sociedade norte-americana estaria condicionada aos valores mais elevados do credo republicano. A tentativa de "quebrar" o governo federal adversário não seria apenas um expediente político extemporâneo mas a própria estratégia republicana contra um governo democrata ilegítimo. Partindo das ideias de Margaret Gilbert sobre obrigação e filiação política, Lynch sustenta que regimes democráticos dependem do conhecimento partilhado de que todos participam da mesma comunidade política para sobreviverem.
Existem limites morais para barganhas políticas?
Existem limites morais para barganhas políticas?
[...]
But even if the social contract idea is wrong as a theory of specific political obligations generally, it is helpful on one point at least. It is hard to imagine a functioning democratic institution most of whose members, at least, aren’t jointly committed to keeping the democracy running even when there is disagreement over which direction it should travel.
To repeat, it is not the shutdown itself that threatens the unraveling of our being jointly committed in this way. The government has shut down before and survived. Nor is the breakdown in normal legislative negotiations — because one side has, as it were, left the dance floor. It has to do with the fact that it is no longer common knowledge among the citizens of this country — left, right and center — that most everyone is willing to act together as a single political society. The real damage is caused by the idea that that our current democratic form of government should be shuttered. For that raises the question of whether it should be around at all. And once people begin to wonder whether the government is something that other citizens are taking seriously — even if they aren’t — the idea that we are all in this together can vanish.
(O Estado de S. Paulo publicou um infográfico útil para aqueles que querem entender melhor a genealogia da crise nos Estados Unidos).
