We routinely talk about America sliding into authoritarianism these days. It seems to be a done deal, with little anyone can do to check it. After all, Trump was legally and democratically elected, even if most of his supporters really should have seen where this was headed long before election day. But, bafflingly, most of them still seem pretty happy with the way things are going. Many Americans WANT an authoritarian government, it seems.
But, however much we may kvetch about it, this is not the same deal as Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia (not yet anyway). A thoughtful and deep article on the Foreign Affairs website introduced me to the concept of "competitive authoritarianism", which sounds like an oxymoron, but which actually describes pretty well what is going on here.
Competitive authoritarianism is "a system in which parties compete in elections, but where incumbents routinely abuse their power to punish critics and tilt the playing field against their opposition". It's what we see happening in Chávez snd Maduro's Venezuela, Bukele's El Salvador, Erdogen's Turkey, Orban's Hungary, and Modi's India. (Russia and China are a little further along the continuum to full-scale dictatorships.)
The USA under Trump is just such a competitive authoritarian country. Arguably it's democratic decline has proceeded faster (and less subtly) than any of the other examples given. However, that does not mean that the slide is irreversible. Democratic channels still exist whereby Trump's slide can be checked and even reversed. Recent Democrat Party gains in by-elections indicate that all is not lost, although the 2026 mid-terms will be the litmus test.
It requires the American public to recognize the twin dangers of complacency and fatalism, but the authors of this article, at any rate, believe that this will happen.
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