Episode Details

The idea that the United States could shift from a beacon of democracy to something called an elected autocracy sounds like a plot from a dystopian novel, but for many political scientists, it is a serious subject of study. An elected autocracy is essentially a system that keeps the shell of democracy—the ballots, the polling stations, and the election cycles—while stripping away the substance of a truly fair and competitive environment. Experts call this process democratic backsliding, and it is rarely a sudden coup. Instead, it is a slow, methodical erosion. Researchers point to a concept known as autocratic legalism, where leaders use the existing rules of the game to dismantle the very checks and balances designed to keep them in power. I

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