Democratic backsliding in the United States
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Democratic backsliding has been identified as a trend in the United States at the state and national levels in various indices and analyses, primarily during the Jim Crow era and in the 21st century, particularly under Donald Trump. It is "a process of regime change towards autocracy that makes the exercise of political power more arbitrary and repressive and that restricts the space for public contestation and political participation in the process of government selection".
The Jim Crow era is among the most-cited historical examples of democratic backsliding, with Black Americans in particular seeing their rights eroded dramatically, especially in the Southern United States. Backsliding in the 21st century has been discussed as largely a Republican-led phenomenon, with particular emphasis placed on the administrations of Donald Trump. Drivers include decisions made by the Supreme Court (especially those regarding money in politics and gerrymandering), attempts at election subversion, the concentration of political power, a growing interest in political violence and white identity politics. The presidencies of Donald Trump accelerated undermining of democratic norms. A paper published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science said "Trump undermined faith in elections, encouraged political violence, vilified the mainstream media, [and] positioned himself as a law-and-order strongman challenging immigrants and suppressing protests."
These developments have resulted in the country ceasing to be classified as a democracy by a number of indices and experts. The Polity data series classified the United States as an "anocracy" following the attempted self-coup by Trump in the January 6 United States Capitol attack of 2021; in 2024 and 2025, it was further downgraded, and by October 2025 described as "no longer [...] a democracy" and lying "at the cusp of autocracy". Bright Line Watch made similar statements in September 2025, describing expert ratings of the country as "closer to those of a mixed or illiberal democracy than a full democracy". The V-Dem Institute has classified the United States as an "electoral autocracy" since late 2025, with its director Staffan I. Lindberg expecting future elections not to be free and fair. In their latest democracy indices, which were both published before Trump's second term, Freedom House and The Economist still considered the country a flawed democracy, but scores on each metric have significantly declined.