Amherst College Political Science Professor Javier Corrales has spent his career studying the processes of democratization and autocratization in nations throughout Latin America — and he sees a very familiar and troubling pattern developing in the United States.
In a thread posted on BlueSky, Corrales outlined many of the "boxes Trump has already checked off" in his efforts to transform the United States from a representative democracy to an authoritarian state.
First, Corrales flags Trump's declaration over the weekend that "he who saves his country does not violate any law" as a classic justification used by dictators to amass unchecked power.
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But it's not just rhetoric that has Corrales alarmed, as he also points to Trump's attempts to fire massive swathes of the civil service and to defund or abolish entire government agencies without any input from the United States Congress.
Added to this, writes Corrales, Trump has launched a campaign to "mobilize hate across society" by "encouraging people to develop intense hate of some out-group (illegal immigrants, trans folks, ethnic minorities, Hollywood celebrities, elite colleges, dissenters)."
Finally, he writes, Trump has embraced a plan to "defy the courts when they turn against you" and to "make sure you have a conflict with the court, so that you can counterattack them en bloc."
Read the full thread at this link.
All my life I have studied democratization and autocratization. My 1st field trip was to newly democratic Argentina. I then added autocracies to my portfolio: Cuba, Ven, etc. I think I can recognize the stages of transition to authoritarianism. Here are the boxes Trump has already checked off.
— Javier Corrales (@javiercorrales.bsky.social) February 16, 2025 at 7:10 AM
