Is the U.S. slipping into ‘Aggressive Authoritarianism?’

What sort of political system do we’ve got in America lately?

Some consultants say the US is now not a liberal democracy, however working below a system referred to as “competitive authoritarianism.”

For this installment of NPR’s Phrase of the Week, we discover the time period’s origin story and the way it’s being utilized in a approach those that got here up with it by no means imagined.

Should you’re not acquainted with the time period, here’s a primary definition:

Aggressive authoritarian international locations have democratic guidelines and maintain aggressive elections, however the get together in cost makes use of varied techniques to tilt the electoral taking part in discipline in its favor to take care of energy.

Steven Levitsky, a professor of presidency at Harvard who helped give you the idea, defined it final 12 months on NPR member station WAMU’s present, 1A.

“Elected authoritarians, when they come to power, try to convert the state, which is supposed to be a neutral arbiter, into both a weapon and a shield,” mentioned Levitsky, who co-authored the ebook How Democracies Die. “It’s a weapon to be deployed against political rivals, and it is a shield to protect themselves and to protect their allies who engage in authoritarian or illegal behavior.”

Levitsky says Trump’s pardoning of the folks convicted within the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol is a main instance.

Aggressive authoritarianism is a fairly new time period. Levitsky and Lucan Manner – now a professor on the College of Toronto – got here up with it in 2002 to explain methods in international locations equivalent to Serbia, Kenya and Peru.

“We never – when we coined this term 25 years ago – never imagined that we would apply it to the United States,” mentioned Levitsky.

LAPD officers arrest a protester dressed as Girl Liberty in chains following clashes close to the Metropolitan Detention Middle through the “No Kings” nationwide day of protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.

Etienne Laurent/AFP through Getty Photos

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Etienne Laurent/AFP through Getty Photos

However Levitsky says Trump is following a well-known playbook crafted by leaders equivalent to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“When we began to see the Justice Department go after people who were public critics of Trump, when we began to see lawsuits against (the) media or attacks on universities that are viewed as critical of the government,” mentioned Levitsky, “all these things are raising the cost of opposition.”

To explain these sorts of political methods, Manner and Levitsky initially got here up with the phrase, “Contested Autocracy.”

Manner admits it was a “horrible” time period. Then, in dialog, Manner’s school adviser, Harvard professor Timothy Colton, unwittingly offered a eureka second. He misremembered the idea as “competitive authoritarianism.”

“So, we thought, ‘Oh my God,’ that was it!” Manner recalled.

The time period is catching on.

Since President Trump took workplace final 12 months, searches on Google Tendencies for aggressive authoritarianism have spiked. It has additionally proven up in scores of publications, from the Ventura County Star in California to The Scotsman in Edinburgh and The Indian Specific in Mumbai.

President Trump has repeatedly insisted he’s not an autocrat.

“A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace final August. “I don’t like a dictator. I’m not a dictator.”

Different students say the U.S. stays very a lot a democracy. They level out that regardless of Trump’s repeated requires late evening host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired, he stays on the air. As well as, residents routinely protest and criticize Trump and his insurance policies on-line and on the streets.

Nor does aggressive authoritarianism guarantee everlasting rule.

Simply ask Orbán. The former Hungarian chief was broadly seen as perfecting the aggressive authoritarian playbook throughout his 16 years in energy.

However a poor financial system and rampant corruption took a toll. Final month, a unified opposition swept Orbán’s get together in a landslide.