Surviving Autocracy

by Masha Gessen

As tempting as it was to imagine that Trump would do us the favor of announcing the point of no return with a sweeping, unequivocal gesture (and even that upon this announcement we would all justifiably give up hope or, alternatively, become desperately heroic), his autocratic attempt, too, has been not one but a series of actions that change the nature of American government and politics step by step. Magyar has described aspiring post-Communist leaders as building their autocracies by gradually undermining the divisions among branches of government, especially by packing the courts and taking over prosecutorial authority. Of course, his model cannot be simply transposed onto United States reality—not least because some of the formal divisions between branches of government have been weak here for some time. The Justice Department, for example—the wielder of ultimate prosecutorial authority—is a part of the executive branch, and its independent functioning is determined by tradition. A monopoly on political power, which Magyar identifies as a major risk factor, is not unusual in the United States: Trump enjoyed it for his first two years in office, when both houses of Congress were controlled by Republicans, but a number of his predecessors had benefited from the same condition. Still, it is clear that this presidency is different from ones that preceded it.