![]() Many of the bad rehashes of “It Can’t Happen Here” have been just that-pale imitations mixed with a curious wish-casting for a wave of anachronistic fascism to sweep the country. This is especially true for work written to reach audiences beyond the confines of academia. ![]() But translating legitimacy crises into fully authoritarian regimes does not happen automatically, as assumed or implied by much of the “decline of democracy” literature. Backsliding arguments have usefully pointed to “democratic norms” as an important element in the breakdown of political legitimacy. Instead, it may be more illuminating to focus on the common analytic problem shared by most of these discussions of backsliding and regime threats-an insufficiently fleshed-out account of what authoritarianism in modern America would look like in real terms. Much of this has been couched in rather hyperbolic language, yet good, sane research on the subject also exists and competes for attention among the policy-minded set.įor the purposes of this essay, we can bracket questions of whether or not these arguments have been convincing. ![]() A great deal of ink has been spilled by Left and Right on the rise of authoritarian threats in recent years-from Trumpian populism to Covid bio-surveillance-and many prominent social scientists have made strident arguments about democratic “backsliding,” “erosion,” “autocratization,” and similar dangers to the health of the American republic. The question of authoritarianism in America has become a hot-button issue in our era of political discontent.
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