Hungary’s then-Prime Minister Viktor Orban shakes palms with President Trump On the “Board of Peace” assembly in the course of the World Financial Discussion board annual assembly in Davos on January 22.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
disguise caption
toggle caption
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
What sort of political system do we’ve in America today?
Some specialists say the US is not a liberal democracy, however working below a system known 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 approach those that got here up with it by no means imagined.
If you happen to’re not accustomed to the time period, here’s a primary definition:
Aggressive authoritarian international locations have democratic guidelines and maintain aggressive elections, however the social gathering in cost makes use of varied techniques to tilt the electoral enjoying area in its favor to keep up energy.
Steven Levitsky, a professor of presidency at Harvard who helped provide you with the idea, defined it final yr 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,” mentioned Levitsky, who co-authored the ebook How Democracies Die. “It is a weapon to be deployed towards 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 main instance.
Aggressive authoritarianism is a fairly new time period. Levitsky and Lucan Method – now a professor on the College of Toronto – got here up with it in 2002 to explain programs in international locations resembling Serbia, Kenya and Peru.
“We by no means – once we coined this time period 25 years in the past – by no means imagined that we might apply it to the US,” mentioned Levitsky.
LAPD officers arrest a protester dressed as Girl Liberty in chains following clashes close to the Metropolitan Detention Heart in the course of the “No Kings” nationwide day of protest in Los Angeles on March 28, 2026.
Etienne Laurent/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
disguise caption
toggle caption
Etienne Laurent/AFP by way of Getty Pictures
However Levitsky says Trump is following a well-recognized playbook crafted by leaders resembling former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“After we started to see the Justice Division go after individuals who have been public critics of Trump, once we started to see lawsuits towards (the) media or assaults on universities which can be seen as vital of the federal government,” mentioned Levitsky, “all this stuff are elevating the price of opposition.”
To explain these sorts of political programs, Method and Levitsky initially got here up with the phrase, “Contested Autocracy.”
Method admits it was a “horrible” time period. Then, in dialog, Method’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!” Method recalled.
The time period is catching on.
Since President Trump took workplace final yr, searches on Google Tendencies 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 perhaps we like a dictator,” Trump instructed 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 night time 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 former Hungarian chief was extensively 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 social gathering in a landslide.
