SPRINGFIELD — Power grabs, removing bureaucratic safeguards, compliant courts, weaponization of social media, attacks on elites and the media.

All are hallmarks, said Amherst College political scientist Javier Corrales, of what was a stable and free democracy backsliding into authoritarianism.

“What I want to do is go through those boxes and I’ll let you decide what’s happening in the United States on your own to see what kind of boxes we are checking off,” said Corrales, Dwight W. Morrow 1895 Professor of Political Science and Department Chair of Political Science.

He gave a lunchtime talk Wednesday for the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts rattling off a list of countries — Turkey, Hungary, Russia, Serbia, Brazil and Venezuela — where the virus of democratic backsliding h

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