Over the first months of the second Trump presidency, we have watched the guardrails of democracy come off rapidly in real time. Mass firings of civil servants, the dismissal of government watchdogs, ...

The FBI search of a Washington Post reporter’s home on Jan. 14, 2026, was a rare and intimidating move by an administration focused on repressing criticism and dissent. In its story about the search ...

As the United States heads toward the midterm elections, there are growing concerns among some political scientists that the country has moved even further along the path to some form of autocracy.

In principle, a person who supports a government of, by, and for the people should not also support a system that concentrates power in the hands of a few. Yet substantial and rising shares of ...

Houston, we have a problem … And I mean Houston literally and humorously. America today is pretty much an autocratic plutocracy. That is a technical political term: “a system of governance where ...

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Yonatan Morse, University of Connecticut (THE CONVERSATION) Autocratic leaders in ...