Experts now rate the U.S. as a "mixed" or "illiberal" democracy

Experts say political violence, Trump's attacks against non-partisan agencies and institutions, and partisan gerrymandering are their top concerns

The U.S. has never been a full democracy. By this I mean mainly that for most of our country’s history, full voting and civil rights have been reserved for only a subset of the American people: only in 1920 did women gain the right to vote, for example; Black Americans were ensured it in 1965, barely 60 years ago.

But even today, many components of the political experience in other liberal societies — experts cite countries like Australia, Sweden, and Denmark as the archetypal “full democracies” — are not present in America. This includes factors beyond base voting rights, such as full legal and practical protections for the free press, whether electoral institutions give each voter the same weight in determining election outcomes and the balance of power, legislative and judicial accountability for the president, and many others.

Political scientists at the V-Dem Institute in Sweden show how the U.S. is currently lagging behind our regional neighbors, after taking a big hit in 2015-16…