Abstract: This essay argues that the main contemporary threat to democracy is not military coups but democratic erosion led by elected officials. Economic globalization, party-system realignment, and especially high inequality created openings for right-wing ethnonationalists in advanced democracies and left-populists in the Global South. Though ideologically different, democratic erosion from both right-wing ethnonationalists and left-populists often weaken courts, the press, civil society, and electoral accountability. Inequality fuels grievance, distrust, and polarization, which backsliding leaders exploit through divisive rhetoric and attacks on institutions. Democratic decline can be resisted through coordinated action by opposition elites, civil society, courts, and voters.
Susan Stokes (2026) studied this question.