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What Is Democratic Backsliding?
Democratic backsliding is the gradual erosion of democracy from within—not necessarily through coups or tanks in the streets, but through elected leaders weakening the institutions, rules, and norms meant to constrain political power.
The process can unfold incrementally and even through formally legal means: undermining independent institutions, weakening checks and balances, manipulating electoral rules, attacking political opponents, and eroding the democratic norms that prevent those in power from using every available institution to entrench themselves.
As political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt explain in How Democracies Die, modern democracies often break down not at the hands of generals, but through elected governments that progressively subvert democratic institutions from within
The United States Is Backsliding
American democracy has experienced measurable deterioration. Major democracy-monitoring organizations have documented declines in the quality of U.S. democratic institutions, civil liberties, and constraints on political power. While these organizations use different methodologies and do not assign the United States identical classifications, the broader pattern of democratic erosion is increasingly difficult to dismiss.
The warning signs are visible across American political institutions:
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Voting rights and electoral access — Changes to voting laws and election administration have generated continuing disputes over ballot access, representation, and the unequal burdens that voting restrictions can impose on different groups of Americans.
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Partisan gerrymandering — Political actors continue to manipulate electoral boundaries for partisan advantage, allowing elected officials in some jurisdictions to shape the electorate they face rather than relying on genuinely competitive districts.
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Election subversion — The effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, culminating in January 6, demonstrated that the peaceful transfer of power—one of the most fundamental requirements of democratic government—cannot simply be taken for granted.
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Expansion of executive power — Increasing assertions of presidential authority raise fundamental questions about the ability of Congress, the courts, the civil service, and other institutions to constrain executive power.
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Weakening institutional checks — Growing partisan conflict over the judiciary, congressional oversight, law enforcement, and the independence of public institutions has placed additional pressure on mechanisms designed to prevent the concentration and abuse of political power.
American democracy has not disappeared. Elections remain competitive, political opposition remains legal and powerful, courts continue to constrain government action, and Americans retain extensive political and civil liberties. But democratic backsliding rarely means that democracy vanishes overnight. It is often a gradual process in which institutional constraints weaken, political norms deteriorate, and conduct once considered unacceptable becomes normalized.
American Democracy Watch exists to document and analyze that process—and to challenge abuses of power that threaten democratic government.