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U.S. Downgraded to 'Non-Democracy'
https://politicalwire.com/2025/03/04/u-s-downgraded-to-non-democracy/U.S. Downgraded to ‘Non-Democracy’
March 4, 2025 at 7:25 am EST By Taegan Goddard
According to the Polity Project, an organization that ranks and categorizes governments worldwide, the U.S. government is classified as a “non-democracy” as of February 2025, a downgrade from its previous status as a democracy.
86 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Dystopia is good. Too good.
NOTE: The USA dropped below the "democracy threshold" (+6) on the POLITY scale in 2020 and was considered an anocracy (+5) at the end of the year 2020; the USA score for 2021 returned to democracy (+8). Beginning on 1 July 2024, due to the US Supreme Court ruling granting the US Presidency broad, legal immunity, the USA is noted by the Polity Project as experiencing a regime transition through, at least, 20 January 2025. As of the latter date, the USA is coded EXREC=8, "Competitive Elections"; EXCONST=1 "Unlimited Executive Authority"; and POLCOMP=6 "Factional/Restricted Competition." Polity scores: DEMOC=4; AUTOC=4; POLITY=0. The USA is no longer considered a democracy and lies at the cusp of autocracy; it has experienced a Presidental Coup and an Adverse Regime Change event (8-point drop in its POLITY score).
Users of the Polity data series should be aware that Polity measures patterns of authority demonstrated and observed in political behaviors involving interaction events between and within state and non-state entities. Polity measures political practices rather than promises or proclamations. In 2016, CSP changed the coding for Political Competition in the USA to Factional Competition (i.e., POLCOMP=7); this coding change dropped the USA's POLITY score to +8. According to the PITF Global Model, this change to "factional competition" placed the USA at high risk of impending political instability (i.e., adverse regime change and/or onset of "systematic and sustained" political violence; possible worst case would be the "collapse of central authority"
. The CSP COUP dataset lists an "attempted coup" (COUP=2) for the USA on 6 January 2021 and a successful coup (COUP=1) on 20 January 2025.
. The CSP COUP dataset lists an "attempted coup" (COUP=2) for the USA on 6 January 2021 and a successful coup (COUP=1) on 20 January 2025.
........a bottle of champagne over this news. Pigs all three. Abysmal hubbies too. 
an entire society is judged by one asshole and his people at the top. 
https://www.systemicpeace.org/polity/P5UnitedStates2025.pdf
https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/from-crisis-to-action-turning-the-tide-on-democratic-erosion-through-organizing/
According to the Polity Project, an organization that ranks and categorizes governments worldwide, the U.S. government is classified as a “non-democracy” as of February 2025, a downgrade from its previous status as a democracy. In response to this decline, a panel of Harvard scholars convened last week for a webinar to discuss how civil society groups can protect and promote democracy in such times of crisis. The Polity Project’s assessment hinges on what it calls an executive coup — an attempt to concentrate all decision-making power within the executive branch. Erica Chenoweth, academic dean for faculty development and Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), drew on this analysis to frame the discussion, highlighting the role of social mobilization and organizing in resisting democratic backsliding.
Recognizing the Urgency of this Moment
Building on the project’s classification of the United States as a non-democracy, Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and professor of government at Harvard University, warned that aspects of the Trump administration reflect patterns of competitive authoritarianism, where freely elected officials consolidate power by stacking leadership positions with loyalists. “When competitive authoritarianism is executed in a systematic way, as we’ve begun to see in the last month, what it does is tilt the playing field against the opposition and in favor of the incumbent,” explained Levitsky.
Echoing concerns about the country’s trajectory, Cornell William Brooks, Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations and professor of the practice of public leadership and social justice at HKS, called this “an exceedingly dangerous moment in our republic.” He added that efforts to erase the country’s unique identity as a multiracial democracy signaled further erosion. Taken together, these dynamics create what Marshall Ganz, Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society at HKS, described as a “rock-bottom moment.” He continued, “The thing about rock-bottom moments is that you realize that you cannot keep doing what you’ve been doing and expect an outcome that’s any different. Rock-bottom moments mean you must change; you must be open to change, and you must consider where we are.”
Strong Principles Power Effective Movements
To emerge from this rock-bottom moment, Ganz emphasized the necessity of coming together with a spirit of hope — without that, progress is impossible. He argued that before people power can be exercised, organizing must be grounded in a clearly defined cause and a set of shared values: “If you’re going to fight, you need to know what you’re fighting for…Those of us who share democratic values know that it’s challenging to bring people to the center of politics in a real way, but that’s what we have to do.” Building on Ganz’s assessment, Brooks expanded on the path forward. While Ganz highlighted the immaterial elements necessary for building a foundation for social mobilization, Brooks focused on the practical aspects of organizing, underscoring the need for a broad, diverse coalition of advocates. “In this moment, I want to suggest that we are going to need, more than we certainly have in recent memory, a kind of multivalent, multilingual, multigenerational form of advocacy,” he said. “Which is to say, we have to have advocacy at the grassroots.”
snip
https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/from-crisis-to-action-turning-the-tide-on-democratic-erosion-through-organizing/
According to the Polity Project, an organization that ranks and categorizes governments worldwide, the U.S. government is classified as a “non-democracy” as of February 2025, a downgrade from its previous status as a democracy. In response to this decline, a panel of Harvard scholars convened last week for a webinar to discuss how civil society groups can protect and promote democracy in such times of crisis. The Polity Project’s assessment hinges on what it calls an executive coup — an attempt to concentrate all decision-making power within the executive branch. Erica Chenoweth, academic dean for faculty development and Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), drew on this analysis to frame the discussion, highlighting the role of social mobilization and organizing in resisting democratic backsliding.
Recognizing the Urgency of this Moment
Building on the project’s classification of the United States as a non-democracy, Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and professor of government at Harvard University, warned that aspects of the Trump administration reflect patterns of competitive authoritarianism, where freely elected officials consolidate power by stacking leadership positions with loyalists. “When competitive authoritarianism is executed in a systematic way, as we’ve begun to see in the last month, what it does is tilt the playing field against the opposition and in favor of the incumbent,” explained Levitsky.
Echoing concerns about the country’s trajectory, Cornell William Brooks, Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations and professor of the practice of public leadership and social justice at HKS, called this “an exceedingly dangerous moment in our republic.” He added that efforts to erase the country’s unique identity as a multiracial democracy signaled further erosion. Taken together, these dynamics create what Marshall Ganz, Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society at HKS, described as a “rock-bottom moment.” He continued, “The thing about rock-bottom moments is that you realize that you cannot keep doing what you’ve been doing and expect an outcome that’s any different. Rock-bottom moments mean you must change; you must be open to change, and you must consider where we are.”
Strong Principles Power Effective Movements
To emerge from this rock-bottom moment, Ganz emphasized the necessity of coming together with a spirit of hope — without that, progress is impossible. He argued that before people power can be exercised, organizing must be grounded in a clearly defined cause and a set of shared values: “If you’re going to fight, you need to know what you’re fighting for…Those of us who share democratic values know that it’s challenging to bring people to the center of politics in a real way, but that’s what we have to do.” Building on Ganz’s assessment, Brooks expanded on the path forward. While Ganz highlighted the immaterial elements necessary for building a foundation for social mobilization, Brooks focused on the practical aspects of organizing, underscoring the need for a broad, diverse coalition of advocates. “In this moment, I want to suggest that we are going to need, more than we certainly have in recent memory, a kind of multivalent, multilingual, multigenerational form of advocacy,” he said. “Which is to say, we have to have advocacy at the grassroots.”
snip
Not that I wasn't depressed (and angry) enough already!
How I feel right now:
May you all rot in the hottest of hells for this! 