NPR | Wednesday, May 16, 2026 
Is the U.S. slipping into ‘Competitive Authoritarianism?’

What kind of political system do we have in America these days? Some experts say the United States is no longer a liberal democracy, but operating under a system called “competitive authoritarianism.” For this installment of NPR’s Word of the Week, we explore the term’s origin story and how it is being applied in a way those who came up with it never imagined. If you’re not familiar with the term, here is a basic definition: Competitive authoritarian countries have democratic rules and hold competitive elections, but the party in charge uses various tactics to tilt the electoral playing field in its favor to maintain power. Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard who helped come up with the concept, explained it last year on NPR member station WAMU’s show, 1A. “Elected authoritarians, when they come to power, try to convert the state, which is supposed to be a neutral arbiter, into both a weapon and a shield,” said Levitsky, who co-authored the book How Democracies Die. “It’s a weapon to be deployed against political rivals, and it is a shield to protect themselves and to protect their allies who engage in authoritarian or illegal behavior.” Levitsky says Trump’s pardoning of the people convicted in the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol is a prime example. Competitive authoritarianism is a pretty new term. Levitsky and Lucan Way – now a professor at the University of Toronto – came up with it in 2002 to describe systems in countries such as Serbia, Kenya and Peru. “We never – when we coined this term 25 years ago – never imagined that we would apply it to the United States,” said Levitsky…Read more