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What is Democratic Backsliding?
Democratic backsliding is the slow, deliberate erosion of democracy from within — not by tanks in the streets, but by elected officials quietly dismantling the institutions
meant to hold them accountable. It happens through rigged maps, suppressed votes, captured courts, and leaders who treat democratic norms as inconveniences rather than obligations. As scholars Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt warn, democracies today don't die by coup — they die by a thousand cuts that may appear legal on the surface.
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The United States Is Backsliding
This is not speculation — it is the documented conclusion of the world's leading democracy watchdogs. Freedom House, the V-Dem Institute, and the Economist Intelligence Unit have all downgraded the United States. In 2026, V-Dem stripped America of its liberal democracy status for the first time in over 50 years. The Polity data series went further — it no longer classifies the U.S. as a democracy at all.
The damage is tangible and measurable:
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Voter suppression — Hundreds of laws restricting ballot access have passed since 2010, disproportionately targeting Black, Brown, and low-income voters
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Gerrymandering — Congressional maps are drawn to guarantee outcomes, not reflect the will of voters
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Attempted election subversion — The effort to overturn the 2020 election and the January 6th attack on the Capitol were not isolated incidents — they were the open face of a broader authoritarian movement
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Executive power grabs — The Trump administration has systematically weakened the civil service, weaponized the Justice Department, and defied congressional oversight
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A captured judiciary — A Supreme Court shaped by partisan manipulation has expanded presidential immunity, gutted voting rights protections, and shredded checks on executive power
American democracy is not already lost — but it is under direct assault. The first step to saving it is seeing it clearly.