Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa used this approach. His multimillion-dollar defamation suits and jailing of journalists on charges of defamation had a powerfully chilling effect on the media.
Each individual step seems minor—none appears to truly threaten democracy. Indeed, government moves to subvert democracy frequently enjoy a veneer of legality: They are approved by parliament or ruled...
The easiest way to deal with potential opponents is to buy them off.
Yet Ford was also a widely admired, even beloved, figure in the United States, especially in the Midwest. A poor farm boy who made good, the plainspoken businessman was revered by many rural Americans...
The police can crack down on opposition protest while tolerating acts of violence by progovernment thugs
It was not unusual for figures such as Coughlin, Long, McCarthy, and Wallace to gain the support of a sizable minority - 30 or even 40 percent - of the country. We often tell ourselves that America's...
The Depression also gave rise to Louisiana governor and senator Huey Long, who called himself the Kingfish. Long was described by the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. as the great demagogue of the...
That brings us to a final factor shaping President Trump’s ability to damage our democracy: crisis. Major security crises—wars or large-scale terrorist attacks—are political game changers. Almost inva...
Senator Joseph McCarthy, who used the Cold War fear of communist subversion to promote blacklisting, censorship, and book banning, enjoyed wide backing among the American public. At
Deberíamos preocuparnos en serio cuando un político: 1) rechaza, ya sea de palabra o mediante acciones, las reglas democráticas del juego, 2) niega la legitimidad de sus oponentes, 3) tolera o alienta...
When major businesses join progressive boycotts, they often succeed.
When gatekeeping institutions fail, mainstream politicians must do everything possible to keep dangerous figures away from the centers of power.
The Plot Against America, American novelist Philip Roth builds
I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks. It’s true….I’d like to punch him in the face, I’l...
Even well-designed constitutions cannot, by themselves, guarantee democracy. For one, constitutions are always incomplete. Like any set of rules, they have countless gaps and ambiguities. No operating...
Building on Linz’s work, we have developed a set of four behavioral warning signs that can help us know an authoritarian when we see one. We should worry when a politician 1) rejects, in words or acti...
All successful democracies rely on informal rules that, though not found in the constitution or any laws, are widely known and respected. In the case of American democracy, this has been vital.
Whether real or not, would-be authoritarians are primed to exploit crises to justify power grabs.
We fear that if Trump were to confront a war or terrorist attack, he would exploit this crisis fully—using it to attack political opponents and restrict freedoms Americans take for granted. In our vie...
The disenfranchisement of African Americans wiped out the Republican Party, locking in white supremacy and single-party rule for nearly a century. As one black southerner observed, The whole South—eve...