Hundreds of U.S.-based scholars say the United States is swiftly heading away from liberal democracy and towards some form of authoritarianism. In this episode of The Sunday Story, NPR's Frank Langfitt speaks to people who have fled authoritarian regimes for America. They say some of the Trump administration's tactics remind them of home.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: What is the current state of American democracy?
I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and this is The Sunday Story, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. We are more than three months into Donald Trump's second term as president, and there's a question that's coming up a lot. What is the state of American democracy? Last year, at a Fox News town hall campaign event, Trump insisted he would be a dictator, but only for one day.
There is energy. We're going to drill, baby, drill. After that, I'm not going to be a dictator.
After that, I'm not going to be a dictator.
Now, many scholars say the U.S. is moving swiftly away from liberal democracy and towards some form of authoritarianism.
It is certainly reversible, but we are no longer living in a liberal democracy.
We are very certain that the United States is moving in the direction of autocratization.
I think we're on a very fast slide into what's called competitive authoritarianism.
That was Stephen Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard, Shabnam Gamushu, a political scientist at Middlebury College, and Kim Lane Shepley, a Princeton sociologist. Of course, there are scholars who disagree with them. But in recent surveys, hundreds of political scientists from all over the country were asked to rate the health of American democracy.
And they downgraded America's democracy score more than ever before. NPR's Frank Langfitt has been covering democracy for some time and was intrigued by these landmark results. He decided to speak to some scholars and others who've come here from authoritarian countries and find out what they make of President Trump's first months in office. Welcome to the show, Frank.
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Chapter 2: Why do some scholars believe the U.S. is becoming authoritarian?
We always ask our respondents to rate the performance of American democracy on a 0 to 100 scale. So 0 would be complete dictatorship and 100 would be perfect democracy.
The professors consider 30 different indicators. So, for instance, whether the government interferes with the press or punishes political opponents, whether the legislature and judiciary check executive authority. Right after Trump's election, political scientists rated democracy in the U.S. at a 67. Late last month, scholars downgraded democracy here to 53. The survey started back in 2017.
Kerry says that's the biggest plunge ever.
If you had asked me five years ago, I never would have expected the United States to have fallen this far.
And the U.S. score actually landed midway between our neighbor Canada and Russia, which, as we all know, is a hardcore authoritarian state.
After the break, we consider two political leaders who people say concentrated power and transformed their countries. Stay with us.
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