Can America Still Reverse Democratic Decline?

America has crossed a line many once thought unimaginable.

As political scientists Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt write in Foreign Affairs, the United States is no longer a full democracy. Under Trump’s second term, it has shifted into competitive authoritarianism—a system where elections still occur, but incumbents systematically use state power to hobble opponents.

Yet the authors argue that this slide, alarming as it is, remains reversible. The most important factor in determining the future is not Trump’s strength but how Americans respond.

The shift they describe did not happen subtly. Over 2025, the administration purged institutions such as the Justice Department and the FBI, replacing career civil servants with personal loyalists willing to target critics. Inve