Harvard professor of government Steven Levitsky studies how healthy democracies can slip into authoritarianism. He says the Trump administration has already done grave damage: "We are no longer living in a democratic regime." David Bianculli reviews season 2 of Nathan Fielder's The Rehearsal.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Stephen Levitsky and what is his expertise on democracy?
Oh, yeah. Freedom House has annual reports for every country. The rise in political violence, political threats, threats against politicians, refusal to accept the results of a democratic election in 2020, an effort to use violence to block a peaceful transfer of power are all listed among the reasons for why the United States has fallen.
I should say that even in the first four months of the Trump administration, it's quite certain that what's happening on the ground in the United States is likely to bring the U.S. core down quite a bit.
Peter Robinson
I think the most likely outcome is a slide into what Luke and Wei and I call competitive authoritarianism. These are regimes that constitutionally continue to be democracies. There is a constitution, there are regular elections, a legislature, and importantly, the opposition is legal, above ground, and competes for power. So from a distance, if you squint,
It looks like a democracy, but the problem is that systematic incumbent abuse of power tilts the playing field against the opposition. This is the kind of regime that we saw in Venezuela under Hugo Chavez, subsequently become a full-on dictatorship. It's what we see in Turkey under Erdogan. It's what we see in El Salvador. It's what we see in Hungary today.
Most new autocracies that emerged in the 21st century have been led by elected leaders and fall into this category of competitive authoritarianism. It's kind of a hybrid regime.
So free and fair elections lead us to a leader which takes us in a different direction.
Right. And because the leader is— Usually, freely and fairly elected, he has a certain legitimacy that allows him to say, hey, how can you say I'm an authoritarian if I was freely and fairly elected? So citizens are often slow to realize that their country is descending into authoritarianism.
It's interesting that you say that no democracy is entirely free of politicization of these tools and that that was the case in the United States in recent decades, true?
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Chapter 2: How has the United States' democracy rating changed in recent years?
I do... I do have some experience with creating elaborate role playing scenarios.
Okay. Before long, Nathan is on the case. He enlists as his initial test subject a young first officer who lives with his mother and has a somewhat shaky relationship with his girlfriend. Nathan tries to shadow the junior pilot going through his everyday routine, but when Nathan and his camera crew track him through the Houston airport, they're denied access to the exclusive pilot's lounge.
That's when Nathan places a phone call. And halfway through the call, walks into an adjacent office to deliver a message in person.
You said this is for HBO? HBO, yeah. And the focus of the project is aviation safety. So, you know, we're really trying to make a somewhat sincere effort to explore and develop new ways to improve pilot communication in the cockpit. So that's the main thrust of the project.
Okay, okay. Could you tell me more about the project? You said somewhat sincere?
Well, I only say somewhat because it's a television show, so we're also trying to make it entertaining. So there's dual goals, I guess.
Okay. And you said it's a documentary?
Yeah. I mean, I would use that term loosely, but yeah. Yeah.
Like, when you say that it is hybrid, you mean, I'm just trying to get a sense of the tone and what the end product is going to look like. We are happy to work with media projects.
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