Democratic Decline in the United States: What Can We Learn from Middle-Income Backsliding?

We explore what can be learned from authoritarian backsliding in middle income countries about the threats to American democracy posed by the election of Donald Trump. We develop some causal hunches and an empirical baseline by considering the rise of elected autocrats in Venezuela, Turkey, and Hung...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Perspectives on politics 2019-06, Vol.17 (2), p.417-432
Main Authors: Kaufman, Robert R., Haggard, Stephan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authoritarianism
Autocracy
Causality
Civil liberties
Civil rights
Coats, Dan
Comparative studies
Competition
Courts
Democracy
Developed countries
Dictators
Drafts
Elections
Elites
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
Intelligence
Judicial appointments
Lake, David A
Law enforcement
Liberal democracy
Polarization
Political campaigns
Political economy
Political institutions
Political power
Political systems
Power
Presidential powers
Reversal
Rights
Rule of law
Special Section: Consequences
Subversion
Welfare
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Summary:We explore what can be learned from authoritarian backsliding in middle income countries about the threats to American democracy posed by the election of Donald Trump. We develop some causal hunches and an empirical baseline by considering the rise of elected autocrats in Venezuela, Turkey, and Hungary. Although American political institutions may forestall a reversion to electoral autocracy, we see some striking parallels in terms of democratic dysfunction, polarization, the nature of autocratic appeals, and the processes through which autocratic incumbents sought to exploit elected office. These processes could generate a diminished democratic system in which electoral competition survives, but within a political space that is narrowed by weakened horizontal checks on executive power and rule of law.
ISSN:1537-5927
1541-0986
DOI:10.1017/S1537592718003377