Four Key Indicators of Authoritarian Behavior

(Table taken from Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies DIe (New York: Crown, 2018), pp. 23-24.) We have recently seen the erosion of democracy and a return to authoritarian rule in many countries around the world. Americans have long assumed that the United States, with its long tradition of republican democracy and constitutional processes, is invulnerable to the threat of authoritarianism. Yet we are witnessing an unprecedented era in which all previous norms and traditions are being challenged or altogether ignored. Especially fragile is our long tradition of TOLERANCE (the respect of the legitimacy of our political rivals) and "forebearance" (the RESTRAINT of political leaders in exercising their power). Is our republic in danger?