Nearly eight weeks into President Donald Trump’s return to the White House, he has enacted sweeping changes that have drastically changed the makeup of our federal government. While many Democrats are describing Trump’s actions as those of a straight authoritarian or dictator, other experts believe the U.S. could be on the brink of a different type of government: competitive authoritarianism.
Competitive authoritarianism, also called a hybrid regime, is defined by Vox as a government that “still holds elections, but under profoundly unfair conditions that systematically favor one side,” with elections “stacked in the incumbent party’s favor so heavily that the people don’t have real agency over who rules them.” Some in the U.S. fear this is where Trump’s administration is heading with its consolidation of government.
A “full-scale dictatorship in which elections are meaningless and regime opponents are locked up, exiled, or killed remains highly unlikely in America,” said Harvard University government professor Steven Levitsky at The Atlantic. But this “doesn’t mean the country won’t experience authoritarianism in some form,” as Trump “has already moved strongly in this direction.” What is happening is a “coordinated effort to dig in, cement power, and weaken rivals.”
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Competitive authoritarianism would “transform political life in the United States,” said Levitsky and University of Toronto political science professor Lucan A. Way at Foreign Affairs. The U.S. is “heading toward competitive authoritarian rule, not single-party dictatorship.” These governments “routinely use economic policy and regulatory decisions to reward politically friendly individuals, firms, and organizations.” Businesses often have a “strong incentive to align themselves with incumbents,” and the same pattern can be seen in the media.
The “risk of democratic backsliding has never been more pronounced,” said Jim Powers at East Texas News. When it comes to checks and balances, Trump has “already demonstrated his intent to replace independent institutions with loyalists who prioritize personal allegiance over constitutional duty.” It is Congress’ job to check presidential power, but if the “Republican Party maintains control, Trump’s power will go largely unchecked,” and there is already a “normalization of efforts to overturn results that do not favor the party in power.”
This also relates to the “broader context in which Trumpism has seemingly thrived,” said Ishaan Tharoor at The Washington Post. Trump’s “efforts to restrict voting rights, cow or shut out mainstream media and purge state institutions of nonpartisan bureaucrats are all precursors to a turn toward a regime of electoral autocracy.”
What next?
“We’re pretty screwed,” Levitsky bluntly said to Intelligencer. Congress “basically shutting itself down in the wake of the executive branch usurping its power is also really stunning.” Levitsky also noted the influence of Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has already fired large swaths of federal employees as part of a cost-cutting effort.
There will still be pushback against the Trump administration, experts say, and America’s wealth plays a large part in this. One “major reason that rich democracies are more stable is that capitalist development disperses human, financial, and organizational resources away from the state, generating countervailing power in society,” said Levitsky and Way.
The U.S. remained a “flawed democracy” in 2024, according to The Economist’s Democracy Index, and this trend is likely to continue. This is also part of an overall pattern of anti-democratic governments worldwide. Only 45% of the world’s population currently lives in a democracy.
