Opinion: Is the US abandoning its role as the global anchor of democracies?
America faces a tough test under Trump: can its safeguards resist a slide into autocratic legalism
By Dr MJ Vinod, Dr Lakshmi Karlekar
The seismic shift in the use of executive powers by the Trump administration is at odds with the well-known culture of governance in the US. Trump has virtually launched what he calls a “democratic war of retribution” to deal with his so-called “enemy within”. One is reminded of a bestseller ‘How Democracies Die’ (2018) by Steven Levitsky, a Professor at Harvard University. He argues that the breakdown of democracies need not end with a bang or even a coup, rather a whimper, ie, the delegitimisation of democratic political institutions.
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Competitive Authoritarianism
These are days of competitive authoritarianism. Few imagined it would knock on America’s doors. With the executive usurping power through the use of Executive Orders, the US Congress and Judiciary are getting dangerously marginalised, and due process is being given the go-by.
President Trump contends that he has an electoral carte blanche and is hence entitled to do all that he says and does. Sadly, the courts did not intervene earlier. Moreover, the Republican Party seems to have become numb and docile. Rarely has a person dominated the party for so long as Trump. This has empowered him to superimpose his will on the party, leading to a scenario of democratic careening and autocratic legalism.
Many leaders have come to power through legitimate elections only to tighten their grip by reshaping constitutions, a pattern known as illiberal constitutionalism
In Trump v United States (2024), the Supreme Court granted the President at least presumptive immunity for all official acts as well as absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts that fall within their constitutional purview. Trump’s executive outreach includes firing federal employees, closing agencies like USAID, cutting federal funding, excluding transgender people from military service, reducing workplace diversity, pardoning the attackers of the US Capitol, and controlling the Federal Election Commission.
The US courts have ordered a halt to many of Trump’s policies, including mass deportations, the decision to deny birthright citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants, the pardon and commutation of insurrectionists, and the dismissal of public employees by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). All these actions have weakened the standard appellate review process. However, the Rule of Law has been breached by the ongoing politicisation of federal law enforcement and the disdain shown to the US judiciary by soliciting Congressional approvals. Trump 2.0 has shown little respect for the law, democratic processes, or political freedoms, signifying a phenomenon called “liberal democratic backsliding.”
Free Speech
The Federal Government has also infringed upon the constitutionally guaranteed right to free speech and expression of Americans. Trump has weakened the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees outlets like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, known for promoting press freedom, apart from banning some independent media. Threats to revoke licences and investigations into NPR, PBS, Comcast/NBC, ABC, and CBS have heightened political polarisation.
Universities, as the bastions of independent thought, are also feeling the heat. Columbia University’s recent protests for Gaza, and as a centre of “woke” activism, have been criticised for repeatedly failing to shield students from antisemitic abuse. The Trump administration terminated federal contracts worth USD 400 million with the university. His decision to disband the Education Department has come as a shocker. Public Service Loan Forgiveness, Pell Grants, and other federal student aid programmes have also been drastically cut, raising questions about the future of the USD 1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio.
The President has also declared ‘Liberation Day’ in an attempt to rid Washington, DC, of criminal activity by directly regulating the police department with plans to station National Guard troops. He claimed that “Washington, DC. will be liberated” and that crime in the nation’s capital would “disappear”. The “Homeless have to move out, immediately,” he added.
California has sued the Trump administration for deploying the National Guard, stating it is against state sovereignty and federal law. A US appeals court, however, has allowed Trump to maintain command of California’s National Guard. It is anticipated that the government will claim that the National Guard was defending US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and federal property. About 2,000 National Guard members, according to the state of California, still go on raids with ICE agents, help make arrests, and limit the movement of civilians within the state.
The Irony
What the world has been witnessing is a stunning first round of a ‘boxing’ match. The irony is, Trump is using the Constitution and democracy to undermine both. In the last two decades, the world has seen many democratic autocrats who have come to power through legitimate elections, only to fall back on illiberal constitutionalism. What is being witnessed in the US is a process of democratic backsliding through executive orders.
As Arnold Toynbee observed in A Study of History way back in 1934: “There is an overwhelming majority of ordinary people in the membership of even the most advanced and progressive nations/civilizations; and the humanity of all these people is virtually primitive humanity”. America has to disprove this. Steven Fish, Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, puts it succinctly: “Trump wants what Putin has — a press that can’t criticize him, unconstrained power, unfree elections that he can’t lose and more money than God”. The question is whether America is abandoning its role as the global anchor of democracies.
(Dr MJ Vinod is Professor, Department of International Studies, Political Science and History, Christ University, Bengaluru and Dr Lakshmi Karlekar is Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities- Political Science and International Relations, MS Ramaiah College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Bengaluru)
