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Many Americans are justifiably frightened by what is happening to our country. But protecting our democracy requires more than just fright or outrage. We must be humble and bold.
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Steven Levitsky |
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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 invariably, they increase support for the government. Citizens become more likely to tolerate, and even endorse, authoritarian measures when they fear for their security.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The Tea Party questioned President Obama's very right to be president.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The rhetoric wasn't limited to Tea Party activists. Republican politicians also questioned President Obama's "Americanness."
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Steven Levitsky |
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the challenges to Obama's legitimacy were different in two important ways. First, they were not confined to the fringes, but rather accepted widely by Republican voters.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Second, unlike past episodes of extremism, this wave reached into the upper ranks of the Republican Party.
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Steven Levitsky |
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With tactics like these, the Republicans had begun to behave like an antisystem political party. By the end of the Obama presidency, democracy's soft guardrails were becoming dangerously unmoored.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Together with black enfranchisement, immigration has transformed American political parties. These new voters have disproportionately supported the Democratic Party. The nonwhite share of the Democratic vote rose from 7 percent in the 1950s to 44 percent in 2012. Republican voters, by contrast, were still nearly 90 percent white into the 2000s. So as the Democrats have increasingly become a party of ethnic minorities, the Republican Party h..
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Steven Levitsky |
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in the 1950s, married white Christians were the overwhelming majority--nearly 80 percent--of American voters, divided more or less equally between the two parties.
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Steven Levitsky |
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By the 2000s, married white Christians constituted barely 40 percent of the electorate, and they were now concentrated in the Republican Party.
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Steven Levitsky |
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In other words, the two parties are now divided over race and religion--two deeply polarizing issues that tend to generate greater intolerance and hostility than traditional policy issues such as taxes and government spending.
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Steven Levitsky |
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the changing media landscape had a stronger impact on the Republican Party. Republican voters rely more heavily on partisan media outlets than do Democrats.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The rise of right-wing media also affected Republican officeholders. During the Obama administration, Fox News commentators and right-wing radio personalities almost uniformly adopted a "no compromise" position, viciously attacking any Republican politician who broke with the party line."
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Steven Levitsky |
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In 2012 alone, the Koch family was responsible for some $400 million in election spending.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Another factor affecting the fate of our democracy is public opinion. If would-be authoritarians can't turn to the military or organize large-scale violence, they must find other means of persuading allies to go along and critics to back off or give up. Public support is a useful tool in this regard.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Social and cultural changes have also played a major role. Unlike the Democratic Party, which has grown increasingly diverse in recent decades, the GOP has remained culturally homogeneous. This is significant because the party's core white Protestant voters are not just any constituency--for nearly two centuries, they comprised the majority of the U.S. electorate and were politically, economically, and culturally dominant in American societ..
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Steven Levitsky |
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The weakening of our democratic norms is rooted in extreme partisan polarization--one that extends beyond policy differences into an existential conflict over race and culture. America's efforts to achieve racial equality as our society grows increasingly diverse have fueled an insidious reaction and intensifying polarization. And if one thing is clear from studying breakdowns throughout history, it's that extreme polarization can kill demo..
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Steven Levitsky |
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The president may break the law, threaten citizens' rights, and even violate the constitution without having to worry that such abuse will be investigated or censured. With the courts packed and law enforcement authorities brought to heel, governments can act with impunity.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Most often, the capture of the referees is done by quietly firing civil servants and other nonpartisan officials and replacing them with loyalists.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Governments that cannot remove independent judges may bypass them through court packing.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The abdication of political responsibility by existing leaders often marks a nation's first step toward authoritarianism.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The easiest way to deal with potential opponents is to buy them off.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Players who cannot be bought must be weakened by other means.
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Steven Levitsky |
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day after Hitler became chancellor, a prominent conservative who aided him admitted, "I have just committed the greatest stupidity of my life; I have allied myself with the greatest demagogue in world history."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Governments may also use their control of referees to "legally" sideline the opposition media, often through libel or defamation suits."
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Steven Levitsky |
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As key media outlets are assaulted, others grow wary and begin to practice self-censorship.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Finally, elected autocrats often try to silence cultural figures--artists, intellectuals, pop stars, athletes--whose popularity or moral standing makes them potential threats.
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Steven Levitsky |
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governments prefer to co-opt popular cultural figures or reach a mutual accommodation with them, allowing them to continue their work as long as they stay out of politics.
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Steven Levitsky |
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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 action, the democratic rules of the game, 2) denies the legitimacy of opponents, 3) tolerates or encourages violence, or 4) indicates a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media. Table 1 shows how to assess politi..
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Steven Levitsky |
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Would-be autocrats often use economic crises, natural disasters, and especially security threats--wars, armed insurgencies, or terrorist attacks--to justify antidemocratic measures.
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Steven Levitsky |
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the United States has an impressive record of gatekeeping. Both Democrats and Republicans have confronted extremist figures on their fringes, some of whom enjoyed considerable public support. For decades, both parties succeeded in keeping these figures out of the mainstream. Until, of course, 2016.
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Steven Levitsky |
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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 the height of McCarthy's political power, polls showed that nearly half of all Americans approved of him. Even after the Senate's 1954 censure of him, McCarthy enjoyed 40 percent support in Gallup polls.
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Steven Levitsky |
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primaries could "lead to the appearance of extremist candidates and demagogues" who, unrestrained by party allegiances, "have little to lose by stirring up mass hatreds or making absurd promises."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Over the past two years, we have watched politicians say and do things that are unprecedented in the United States--but that we recognize as having been the precursors of democratic crisis in other plac
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Steven Levitsky |
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The first sign is a weak commitment to the democratic rules of the game. Trump met this measure when he questioned the legitimacy of the electoral process and made the unprecedented suggestion that he might not accept the results of the 2016 election.
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Steven Levitsky |
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An essential test for democracies is not whether such figures emerge but whether political leaders, and especially political parties, work to prevent them from gaining power in the first place--by keeping them off mainstream party tickets, refusing to endorse or align with them, and when necessary, making common cause with rivals in support of democratic candidates. Isolating popular extremists requires political courage. But when fear, opp..
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Steven Levitsky |
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Constitutions must be defended--by political parties and organized citizens, but also by democratic norms.
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Steven Levitsky |
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America failed the first test in November 2016, when we elected a president with a dubious allegiance to democratic norms. Donald Trump's surprise victory was made possible not only by public disaffection but also by the Republican Party's failure to keep an extremist demagogue within its own ranks from gaining the nomination.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Whether real or not, would-be authoritarians are primed to exploit crises to justify power grabs.
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Steven Levitsky |
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To entrench themselves in power, however, governments must do more--they must also change the rules of the game. Authoritarians seeking to consolidate their power often reform the constitution, the electoral system, and other institutions in ways that disadvantage or weaken the opposition, in effect tilting the playing field against their rivals. These reforms are often carried out under the guise of some public good, while in reality they ..
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Steven Levitsky |
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The USA PATRIOT Act, signed into law by George W. Bush in October 2001, never would have passed had the September 11 attacks not occurred the previous month.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Populists tend to deny the legitimacy of established parties, attacking them as undemocratic and even unpatriotic. They tell voters that the existing system is not really a democracy but instead has been hijacked, corrupted, or rigged by the elite. And they promise to bury that elite and return power to "the people."
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Steven Levitsky |
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The real protection against would-be authoritarians has not been Americans' firm commitment to democracy but, rather, the gatekeepers--our political parties.
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Steven Levitsky |
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the convention system was an effective gatekeeper, in that it systematically filtered out dangerous candidates. Party insiders provided what political scientists called "peer review."
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Steven Levitsky |