Liberal democracies are playing a large part of their future in the United States. European democracies too. For the moment, the 21st century is a bad one for democracies. Compared to the late 1990s, there are fewer democracies in the world today, and some have still suffered a significant decline in their rule of law: Turkey, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Spain. It seems that Trump and his administration want to prove right the well-known thesis of Levitsky and Ziblatt (2018), which states that current democracies do not die from external coups d'état, but from the detachment of institutions and citizens toward authoritarianism.
Suddenly, two works have taken on new life: Life and destiny by Vassili Grossman (1960, published in 1988), a critique of Stalinism, and The origin of totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt (1951), by far her best work. She says: "We can no longer afford to take from the past what was good and simply call it our heritage, reject what was bad and consider it nothing more than a dead weight that time will bury in oblivion."
We don't yet know all the consequences of Trump's second presidency, but it seems clear that this is not a fleeting or anecdotal episode. In domestic politics, three essential elements of American democracy are being eroded: civil rights and freedoms, the separation of powers, and federalism.
We are witnessing the erosion of rights and freedoms, with mass detentions and deportations of immigrants and violence in the streets, while the central (federal) government organizes military parades and maintains threatening practices against media outlets and universities.
We also see the intervention of the California National Guard, an army that is, in principle, under the authority of the state governor. This constitutes interference in the federal pact that gave rise to the United States in the late 18th century.
In fact, since the founding of American "representative government" (1787), there have been tensions between two ways of understanding federalism. This was already the case between the Federal Party of A. Hamilton, which was more centralizing, and the Democratic-Republican Party of T. Jefferson, which was more favorable to states' rights (with J. Madison in an intermediate position, more inclined toward Jefferson's positions). In the Federalist Papers It often reflects a "defensive" suspicion of the power of a federal government that could challenge the rights of citizens and states in the Union. A defensive attitude that complements the importance that founding fathers They promoted the effective separation of powers, especially that of an independent and impartial judiciary, and broad freedom of the press and expression. American federalism represented a territorial dimension of the liberal separation of powers. "Let power check power" (Montesquieu) and "let interest check interest" (Madison).
In the United States, if federalism fails, liberal democracy fails. And if it fails, the consequences will not stop there, and the shockwaves will reach Europe. lawfare; absence of federal culture; in addition to patriotic police officers, state sewers, spying on politicians and widespread corruption).
Trump intends to rise above the Constitution. He's testing its limits. And he's not alone. The rebellion of the less favored sectors against theestablishment (the Democratic Party in the United States; social democracy and the center-right in Europe).
The attempted assault on the US Congress (January 2021) was a dystopian moment. More may come. So far, only California Governor Gavin Newsom has emerged as an alternative from the Democratic opposition. The rest of the party seems defunct. The midterm elections (2026) will be an indicator of where we are. But they are still far away, and things will continue to happen.
In practice, it is not guaranteed that the judiciary will always act in accordance with the liberal principles of the separation of powers (the courts of Spain and Poland are examples of illiberal practices). Nor is the federal pact's protection against authoritarian centralization guaranteed.
Liberal democracies are always being built. They're a journey that never reaches Ithaca. And ships can sink along the way. Let's remember that in classical Greece, one of the two main dangers to avoid was despotism (in addition to anarchy). It seems we haven't moved too far.
