The doom loop and the anti-democratic whirlpool

A conversation with Lee Drutman about the authoritarian trajectory of American democracy — and the ways out

What do you do when your governing institutions start incentivizing anti-democratic behavior?

America faces some version of this question at the local, state, and national level — the Republican Party is currently waging a full-scale assault on our democracy. The party’s leaders have grown dramatically more willing in recent years to take illiberal actions in order to win power. The bending of institutions, norms, and information have made violations of the fundamental tenants of democratic theory more tolerable — the Overton window for authoritarianism has shifted far to the right.

In the backdrop of all of this, Americans are increasingly ditching their party labels. Research shows they are put off by the anger and hostility of partisanship, and rightly so. New Gallup polling this week shows that half of Americans identify themselves as Independents, rather than Republicans or Democrats — a marked increase over the last few decades. Support for a third party has never been higher, ac…