We know that extremist demagogues emerge from time to time in all societies, even in healthy democracies. Knowing how citizens in other democracies have successfully resisted elected autocrats, or why they tragically failed to do so, is essential to those seeking to defend American democracy today. As these patterns become visible, the steps toward breakdown grow less ambiguous –and easier to combat. When fear or miscalculation leads established parties to bring extremists into the mainstream, democracy is imperiledĪ comparative approach reveals how elected autocrats in different parts of the world employ remarkably similar strategies to subvert democratic institutions. But are they strong enough?Īnswering such a question requires stepping back from daily headlines and breaking news alerts to widen our view, drawing lessons from the experiences of other democracies around the world and throughout history.
How vulnerable is American democracy to this form of backsliding? The foundations of our democracy are certainly stronger than those in Venezuela, Turkey or Hungary. Democracy’s erosion is, for many, almost imperceptible. Those who denounce government abuse may be dismissed as exaggerating or crying wolf. Many continue to believe they are living under a democracy.īecause there is no single moment – no coup, declaration of martial law, or suspension of the constitution – in which the regime obviously “crosses the line” into dictatorship, nothing may set off society’s alarm bells. People do not immediately realize what is happening. Citizens continue to criticize the government but often find themselves facing tax or other legal troubles. Newspapers still publish but are bought off or bullied into self-censorship. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy – making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption or cleaning up the electoral process. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are “legal”, in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. Elected autocrats maintain a veneer of democracy while eviscerating its substance.
Constitutions and other nominally democratic institutions remain in place. On the electoral road, none of these things happen. The constitution is suspended or scrapped. The president is killed, imprisoned or shipped off into exile. With a classic coup d’état, as in Pinochet’s Chile, the death of a democracy is immediate and evident to all. The electoral road to breakdown is dangerously deceptive. Like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, elected leaders have subverted democratic institutions in Georgia, Hungary, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Ukraine.ĭemocratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box. Since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves. Democracies still die, but by different means.
Military coups and other violent seizures of power are rare. Blatant dictatorship – in the form of fascism, communism, or military rule – has disappeared across much of the world.
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