DEMOCRATIC RECESSION

We are confronting what scholars have called “autocratic legalism”: the use of duly enacted laws to undermine constitutional systems and, in particular, to concentrate power

- The writer is Professor of Politics at Princeton University

With many US government services shutting down for lack of funding, the blame game in Washington is intensifying, and journalists are playing their own game of trying to predict the political winner.

But given that Democrats are confronting dilemmas that all opposition parties face when battling aspiring or practicing autocrats, a more fruitful exercise is to consider the lessons of two decades of what political scientists are calling a global “democratic recession.” This recent history makes clear that some strategies for dealing with would-be autocrats work much better than others.

One of the Democrats’ biggest problems is that they are very unpopular, even with their own base. Their supporters feel, justifiably, that party leaders are constantly sending mixed messages. They call President Donald Trump and his henchmen fascists one day, and the next they behave as if they were operating in a chummier, bipartisan time when Congress could cobble together solutions to practical problems. Most people take their cues from elites whom they trust, whether party leaders, trade unionists, or opinion journalists. If those elites do not communicate clearly, well-meaning citizens will struggle to mobilize even in the face of an obvious threat.

During politically normal times, opposition parties are supposed to develop policy alternatives and use parliamentary procedures to hold governments accountable. A classic example is the rhetorical dueling that takes place during Prime Minister’s Questions in the UK. But these are not normal times in the US. Trump, like all aspiring autocrats, is changing institutions to make it less likely that he will lose power in the future, as well as intimidating civil society, harassing political adversaries, and inciting hatred against certain segments of society.