Hungary’s then-Prime Minister Viktor Orban shakes arms with President Trump On the “Board of Peace” assembly throughout the World Financial Discussion board annual assembly in Davos on January 22.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Fabrice Coffrini/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
What sort of political system do now we have in America today?
Some specialists say america is not a liberal democracy, however working beneath a system referred to as “aggressive authoritarianism.”
For this installment of NPR’s Phrase of the Week, we discover the time period’s origin story and the way it’s being utilized in a means those that got here up with it by no means imagined.
Should you’re not conversant in the time period, here’s a fundamental definition:
Aggressive authoritarian nations have democratic guidelines and maintain aggressive elections, however the occasion in cost makes use of varied ways to tilt the electoral enjoying subject in its favor to take care of energy.
Steven Levitsky, a professor of presidency at Harvard who helped provide you with the idea, defined it final 12 months on NPR member station WAMU’s present, 1A.
“Elected authoritarians, after they come to energy, attempt to convert the state, which is meant to be a impartial arbiter, into each a weapon and a defend,” stated Levitsky, who co-authored the e book How Democracies Die. “It is a weapon to be deployed in opposition to political rivals, and it’s a defend to guard themselves and to guard their allies who interact in authoritarian or unlawful habits.”
Levitsky says Trump’s pardoning of the individuals convicted within the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol is a primary instance.
Aggressive authoritarianism is a fairly new time period. Levitsky and Lucan Means – now a professor on the College of Toronto – got here up with it in 2002 to explain programs in nations similar to Serbia, Kenya and Peru.
“We by no means – after we coined this time period 25 years in the past – by no means imagined that we’d apply it to america,” stated Levitsky.
LAPD officers arrest a protester dressed as Woman Liberty in chains following clashes close to the Metropolitan Detention Middle throughout the “No Kings” nationwide day of protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.
Etienne Laurent/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Etienne Laurent/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
However Levitsky says Trump is following a well-known playbook crafted by leaders similar to former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“After we started to see the Justice Division go after individuals who had been public critics of Trump, after we started to see lawsuits in opposition to (the) media or assaults on universities which are considered as important of the federal government,” stated Levitsky, “all these items are elevating the price of opposition.”
To explain these sorts of political programs, Means and Levitsky initially got here up with the phrase, “Contested Autocracy.”
Means admits it was a “horrible” time period. Then, in dialog, Means’s college adviser, Harvard professor Timothy Colton, unwittingly supplied a eureka second. He misremembered the idea as “aggressive authoritarianism.”
“So, we thought, ‘Oh my God,’ that was it!” Means recalled.
The time period is catching on.
Since President Trump took workplace final 12 months, searches on Google Developments for aggressive authoritarianism have spiked. It has additionally proven up in scores of publications, from the Ventura County Star in California to The Scotsman in Edinburgh and The Indian Specific in Mumbai.
President Trump has repeatedly insisted he’s not an autocrat.
“Lots of people are saying possibly we like a dictator,” Trump advised reporters within the Oval Workplace final August. “I do not like a dictator. I am not a dictator.”
Different students say the U.S. stays very a lot a democracy. They level out that regardless of Trump’s repeated requires late evening host Jimmy Kimmel to be fired, he stays on the air. As well as, residents routinely protest and criticize Trump and his insurance policies on-line and on the streets.
Nor does aggressive authoritarianism guarantee everlasting rule.
Simply ask Orbán. The previous Hungarian chief was broadly seen as perfecting the aggressive authoritarian playbook throughout his 16 years in energy.
However a poor financial system and rampant corruption took a toll. Final month, a unified opposition swept Orbán’s occasion in a landslide.
