U.S. democracy depends less on Trump than on us citizens
That’s the bottom-line message in Foreign Affairs Magazine of Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, co-authors of the best-seller “How Democracies Die”; and Lucan Way, professor of democracy at the University of Toronto and co-author with Levitsky of “Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War.”
“In Trump’s second term, the United States has descended into competitive authoritarianism — a system in which parties compete in elections but incumbents routinely abuse their power to punish critics and tilt the playing field against their opposition,” they say.
“The game, however, is far from up. The fact that the United States has crossed the line into competitive authoritarianism does not mean that its democratic decline has reached a point of no return. Trump’s authoritarian offensive is now unmistakable, but it is reversible,” they say.
And reversing it “will require democracy’s defenders to recognize the twin dangers of complacency and fatalism” — underestimating the threat on one hand and believing the country has reached the point of no return on the other.
The article summarizes what’s happened since Trump returned to office in January, most of which I’ve been summarizing in this blog. And I think the article is free to read.
“None of these developments, however alarming, should be cause for fatalism or despair. The United States has entered an authoritarian moment. But there are multiple legal and peaceful ways out,” Levitsky, Ziblatt and Way say.
For example, elections have restored democracy and ended authoritarian rule in India, Malaysia and Poland. Rigged elections have been overturned after protests in Serbia and Ukraine.
And the United States has advantages over other competitive authoritarian regimes: a more independent judiciary, highly professionalized armed forces, the power of the states, a “more vibrant” media, and highly competitive elections organized by a unified opposition party.
Further, U.S. citizens have vast financial and organizational resources, far exceeding anything available to oppositions in other autocracies, the authors say. And Trump’s approval rating is low.
“The most likely medium-term outcome in the United States is neither entrenched authoritarianism nor a return to stable democracy. Rather, it is regime instability: a protracted struggle between authoritarian impulses and democratic solidarity,” the authors say.
“The outcome of this struggle remains open. It will turn less on the strength of the authoritarian government than on whether enough citizens act as though their efforts still matter — because, for now, they still do.”
Also in the news
Chile elects far-right José Antonio Kast to be next president
Pro-democracy Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai found guilty of colluding with foreign forces
Belarus President Lukashenko frees Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and key opposition figures in deal with U.S.
Tribe faces outrage from fellow Native Americans over plans to profit from Trump’s mass deportation campaign
ProPublica: Trump DOJ pressured lawyers to ‘find’ evidence that UCLA had illegally tolerated antisemitism
New federal report scrutinizes Puerto Rico tax incentives luring wealthy Americans
Twenty states sue over Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee
ProPublica: In Alabama, immigrants can face harsher sentences than citizens for the same crimes
National Trust for Historic Preservation sues to try to stop White House ballroom construction until completion of review processes
Heather Cox Richardson on effort to stop Trump from bulldozing 4 historic federal buildings, Democrats’ release of Epstein photos, more
George Washington’s Mount Vernon mansion reopens after 2-year, $40 million renovation
Roomba vacuum cleaner maker iRobot files for bankruptcy
WPost: Department of Veterans Affairs plans to eliminate as many as 35,000 health care jobs this month
FDA rarely forces manufacturers to recall dangerous medical devices, Government Accountability Office reports