In her latest book “The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies,” political scientist Susan C. Stokes traces the recent erosion of democracies around the world, including the United States under President Donald Trump and the MAGA movement.

“In earlier eras,” she writes, “the main threat to democracy was the military coup, a threat confined to new democracies in poor countries. Now we face the prospect of democracy eating away at itself from within, and doing so in some wealthy and seemingly established systems. And whereas coups came as sudden explosions, impossible to hide, democratic backsliding has had a stealthy, gradual, slow-drip quality, making it harder for the population to realize what is happening until the process is well underway.”

Stokes, who serves as the

See Full Page