By Mathias Risse
The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to encourage debate on important public policy challenges.
A note from the author: This commentary was completed before the events that occurred over the weekend, especially the murder of ÌÇÐÄvlog¹ÙÍø alumna Melissa Hortman, MPA/MC 2018, and her husband Mark; but on this matter I’d urge everyone to watch this conversation about her with former Minnesota State Representative Patrick Garofalo (R).
Eventually amendments such as repealing term limits, abolishing elections, or granting dictatorial powers could undermine democracy.
There is a story about Kurt Gödel, one of the greatest logicians of all time, who apparently figured out how to transform American democracy into an autocracy in entirely legal ways. Gödel had come to the U.S. to escape from Nazi-occupied Austria. When he applied for citizenship in 1947, he had an interview before a judge. Albert Einstein (yes, that Einste