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After months of research, Vox’s Zack Beauchamp concluded that democratic survival in the face of threats like President Donald Trump is determined in large part by how obvious the threat to democracy is.
Evidence from Brazil, South Korea, and Poland — all democracies that defeated a would-be authoritarian government — show that the legibility of threat to key segments of society was critical in mobilizing the pushback that decided democracy’s survival.
“For this reason, elected authoritarians who wish to consolidate control typically win not by flashy displays of might, but by convincing a critical mass of people that they’re just a normal politician — no threat to democracy at all,” Beauchamp writes.
“That means the survival of democracy depends, to an extent not fully appreciated, on perceptions and narratives.”
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