Drezner: Is the United States Still a Liberal Democracy?
Daniel Drezner says “I’m afraid the question must be asked.” His answer is, naturally complicated. He notes that the Polity Score for the US has dropped from +8 to 0, but notes that it had previously dropped in 2020 only to rebound in the following years.
He draws heavily from Levitsky and Way’s “The Path to American Authoritarianism” in Foreign Affairs, particularly a passage that ends ith these twp paragraphs:
“Competitive authoritarianism will transform political life in the United States. As Trump’s early flurry of dubiously constitutional executive orders made clear, the cost of public opposition will rise considerably: Democratic Party donors may be targeted by the IRS; businesses that fund civil rights groups may face heightened tax and legal scrutiny or find their ventures stymied by regulators. Critical media outlets will likely confront costly defamation suits or other legal actions as well as retaliatory policies against their parent companies. Americans will still be able to oppose the government, but opposition will be harder and riskier, leading many elites and citizens to decide that the fight is not worth it. A failure to resist, however, could pave the way for authoritarian entrenchment—with grave and enduring consequences for global democracy….
The depletion of societal opposition may be worse than it appears. We can observe when key players sideline themselves—when politicians retire, university presidents resign, or media outlets change their programming and personnel. But it is harder to see the opposition that might have materialized in a less threatening environment but never did—the young lawyers who decide not to run for office; the aspiring young writers who decide not to become journalists; the potential whistleblowers who decide not to speak out; the countless citizens who decide not to join a protest or volunteer for a campaign.”
Drezner’s comment on the above is:
“I cannot shake those last two paragraphs. The welter of civil society and private-sector actors that opposed Trump in 2017 Trump seem much more concerned about appeasing him this time around. No doubt some of them might have changed their mind about him, but it sure seems as though this is more about fear than interest.
More disturbing is that the current administration is laying down a blueprint for how future populists can wield executive power in an illiberal manner. Sure, in theory Congress can pass laws that check against moving too fast and breaking too many things. Absent a wholesale public rebuke of this administration, however, I don’t see that happening. And right now, that public rebuke does not exist. When it comes to Donald Trump, I have been waiting for an categorical public rebuke for ten years now. It has not happened.”