January 30, 2024
Why Trump’s control of the Republican Party is bad for democracy
As former President Donald Trump edges closer to clinching the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, our political science research has shown that a second Trump presidency is likely to damage American democracy even more than his first term did. The reason has less to do with Trump and his ambitions than with how power dynamics have shifted within the Republican Party.
In our forthcoming book, “The Origins of Elected Strongmen: How Personalist Parties Destroy Democracy from Within,” we explain the dangers that arise when leaders come to power backed by political parties that exist primarily to promote the leader’s personal agenda, as opposed to advancing particular policies.
We have found that what matters for democracy is not so much the ambitions of power-hungry leaders, but rather whether those in their support group will tame them.
But so-called personalist parties, as political scientists like us call them, are a threat to democracy because they lack the incentives and ability to resist their leader’s efforts to amass more power.
From 1990 to 2020, in countries all over the world, elected leaders backed by personalist parties have gone on to undermine democracy from within. There are three reasons personalist parties are harmful to democracy, all of which have clear parallels to experiences with Trump and the Republican Party.
Read the full article from The Conversation.
More from CNAS
-
War in the Middle East: The U.S. Rescues Missing Airman from Iran
Video
Jim Townsend, Former US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy and adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security joins France24 t...
By Jim Townsend
-
No Longer So Mighty? Iran War Tests U.S. Strength and Resolve
Video
Jim Townsend, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security joins The Debate to look at the questions, how should Gulf, European and Asian allies react to th...
By Jim Townsend
-
Donald Trump’s Iran Strategy Is ‘Confused, Not Calculated’
Video
Donald Trump’s plan for Iran is not a deliberate strategy but rather a “stream of consciousness” as his lack of clear objectives risk serious global consequences, says former ...
By Jim Townsend
-
The War in Iran, a Benefit to Putin
Podcast
While the world's attention has turned to the war with Iran, the war in Ukraine continues. Russia has seemingly kicked off its spring offensive, but a meaningful breakthrough ...
By Andrea Kendall-Taylor & Jim Townsend
