De ofrias land – USA:s demokratiska kris

Vad händer om världens äldsta demokrati blir en auktoritär supermakt?

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”Land of the free, home of the brave”. Raderna i den amerikanska nationalsången reflekterar den status som demokratins förkämpe och totalitarismens motpol som länge förknippats USA. Men på senare tid har mycket förändrats. Sprickorna i den amerikanska demokratin har börjat blottläggas, den politiska polariseringen gräver sig allt djupare – och den sittande presidenten visar gång på gång prov på sin bristande respekt för lagar, mänskliga rättigheter och demokratiska institutioner. Flera experter menar nu att landet rör sig i en allt mer auktoritär riktning.

Hur har USA hamnat här? Vad händer med Amerika, med resten av världen och med demokratin i stort om utvecklingen fortsätter åt det auktoritära hållet? Och kan den demokratiska krisen över huvud taget stoppas?

Producent och programledare: Anna Lillkung och Wendela Antepohl

Medverkande

• Jan Hallenberg, seniorforskare och USA-expert på Utrikespolitiska Institutet

• Karin Eriksson, journalist och tidigare USA-korrespondent på Dagens Nyheter

• Tom Ginsburg, professor i juridik vid University of Chicago Law School

Ljudklipp

• Jack Balkin on American Democracy, Political Parties, Political Polarisation, and Constitutional Rot (Conversations with Dr. Donna Lyons, 2020) 
  

• Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, ”How Democracies Die” (Politics and Prose, 2018) 
  

• Tyranny of the Minority with Steven Levitsky: A Lecture and Q & A (Antioch University Official, 2024) 
  

• Steven Levitsky & Lucan Way: Is America on the Path to Authoritarianism? | Foreign Affairs Interview (Foreign Affairs, 2025) 
  

• Notre Dame Forum: Tyranny of the Minority with Steven Levitsky (University of Notre Dame, 2024) 
   

• The Democracy Series: A Conversation with Authors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (Harris Public Policy, 2022)
  

Böcker 

• Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point (Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt; 2023)
  

• Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America (redigerad av Cass R. Sunstein; 2018)
  

• How Democracies Die (Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt, 2018) 

Källor i urval

• Kurt Weyland on the Resilience of Democracy (Democracy Paradox Podcast, 2024) 
  

• Autocracy in America (podcast-serie, The Atlantic)

• The Path to American Authoritarianism: What Comes After Democratic Breakdown (Steven Levitsky & Lucan A. Way in Foreign Affairs, 2025) 

• Hundreds of scholars say U.S. is swiftly heading toward authoritarianism(Frank Langfitt/NPR, 2025) 

• ‘I am watching the US enthusiastically leap into an authoritarian regime’ (Sarah Walsh, University of Melbourne, 2025)   

• What America could look like a decade from now (Washington Post, 2025)
   

• There’s a term for Trump’s political style: authoritarian populism (UC Berkeley News, 2025)
  

• American authoritarianism has a long history (The Conversation) 

• ‘He’s moving at a truly alarming speed’: Trump propels US into authoritarianism (The Guardian, 2025) 

• Science Tells Us the U.S. Is Heading toward a Dictatorship (Scientific American, 2025) 
  

• US swing toward autocracy doesn’t have to be permanent – but swinging back to democracy requires vigilance, stamina and elections (The Conversation)
  

• Lessons on American authoritarianism: What the reconstruction and Jim Crow eras warn about America’s future (Donovan Dixon & Madison Jennings, University of Oxford / VOICES, 2025) 
  

• This Is Going Even Worse Than Steven Levitsky Expected (New York Magazine, 2025) 
  

• Dictators united: How authoritarian states work together to thwart democracy (Johns Hopkins Magazine 2024) 

• Why we should worry about nuclear weapons again (The Washington Post, 2025)

• The Tyrant’s Toolbox: Exploring the Relation between Regime Type and Nuclear Proliferation (Chirag Bansal, London School of Economics Undergraduate Political Review, 2023)

• China and Russia Rejoice as the U.S. Cuts Its Global Media (Foundation for Defense of Democracies, 2025) 
  

• The New Authoritarianism (Steven Levitsky, The Atlantic, 2025) 
  

• The rise of authoritarianism is misunderstood – and it matters (University of Birmingham, 2023) 
  

• This Theory Is Behind Trump’s Power Grab (The New York Times, 2025)
  

• Democratic Backsliding and the Rule of Law (Tom Ginsburg, University of Chicago Law School, 2018) 
  

• Illiberal democracy comes to America (Nathan Gardels, NOEMA, 2024) 

• Donald Trump and the Illiberalization of America (Policy Magazine, 2025)

• One Year After Trump’s Election, Revisiting “Autocracy: Rules for Survival” (The New Yorker, 2017) 
  

• Masha Gessen: Nu skrattar amerikanerna lika bittert och uppgivet som ryssarna (Dagens Nyheter, 2025) 
  

• Beware: We Are Entering a New Phase of the Trump Era (The New York Times, 2025) 
  

• Trump's Assault on American Greatness (Nathan Wolf, The Financial Times, 2025) 
  

• Is Trump Building an International Authoritarian Alliance? (New York Magazine, 2025) 
  

• What happens after Trump blows up the world order? (The Washington Post, 2025) 

• Intervju med Jan Hallenberg - Expertens oro: ”Då är USA på väg mot en auktoritär stat”(Efter fem, TV4)

• Trump administration violated ‘impoundment’ law by freezing electric vehicle funding, GAO finds (Politico, 2025) 
  

• I’m a legal scholar. We’re in a constitutional crisis — and this is the moment it began (MSNBC, 2025) 

• Trump Administration Attacks on Science Trigger Backlash from Researchers (Scientific American)

• Welcome to Trump’s Maffia State (The New York Times, 2025)

• The History of Political Parties in the United States (The Bill of Rights Institute) 

• The Roots of Today’s Authoritarianism Come From a 19th Century Supreme Court Ruling (Politico, 2023)

• Texas Republicans aim to redraw House districts at Trump’s urging, but there’s a risk (Politico, 2023)

• Demographics in 2024 election (Pew Research, 2025)

• American view on politics (Pew Research, 2025) 

• Opinions on Trump’s first 100 days (Pew Research, 2025)

• Authoritarian Tendencies in the American Presidency (Erica Serros, Boise State University, 2023)
  

• How the Supreme Court Made Racial Gerrymandering Easier in Alexander v. South Carolina NAACP (League of Women Voters, 2024) 
  

• Under the shadow of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, Congress certifies the 2024 election (NPR, 2025) 
  

• Political Polarization in the American Public (Pew Research Center, 2014) 
  

• Originalism's Race Problem (Jamal Greene, Columbia Law School, 2011) 
  

• Historian Jonathan Gienapp challenges originalist interpretations of the Constitution (Stanford Report, 2024) 
  

• Why is the Supreme Court Obsessed with Originalism? (Yale University Press, 2024) 
  

• Why the second time will be worse (Amanda Carpenter, Project Democracy, 2024) 
  

• As Trump Moves to Dismantle the Department of Education, We Need a Constitutional Amendment (Time Magazine, 2025) 
  

• Winning the Battle of Ideas: Exposing Global Authoritarian Narratives and Revitalizing Democratic Principles (National Endowment for Democracy, 2024) 
  

• DOGE was bad. Schedule F will be worse. (The Atlantic, 2025) 
  

• The Death of Government Expertise (The Atlantic, 2025) 
  

• Nervous Corporate Sponsors retreat from New York Pride (The New York Times, 2025) 
  

• UVA Expert: Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Would've Been a Gift to Nixon (UVA Today, 2024) 
  

• Trump as a Symptom as Much as a Cause: Talking to Steven Levitsky (Los Angeles Review of Books, 2018) 
  

• The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule (Freedom House) 
  

• United States: Freedom in The World 2025 Country Report (Freedom House, 2025) 
  

• How JD Vance sees the world - and why that matters (BBC, 2025) 
  

• Who Controlled Redistricting in Every State (Brennan Center for Justice, 2025) 
  

• Steven Levitsky on Frontline (TEXT) (PBS, 2022) 
  

• What does the Supreme Court immunity ruling mean for Trump? 6 questions answered (PBS, 2024) 

Musik

• Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Let's fun!
  

• Cliff Martinez - I'm Sick
  

• Kid Loco - Theme from the Graffiti Artist
  

• Marcus Bagalà - Cascading Bells
  

• Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Pain Speedball
  

• Whitney Houston - Star Spangled Banner
  

• Cliff Martinez - Rubber Head
  

• Cliff Martinez - There's Nothing In There
  

• Lin Manuel-Miranda - Non Stop (från ”Hamilton”)
  

• Paul Leonard-Morgan - Running To The Loop
  

• Wojciech Golczewski - Setting Up
  

• Cliff Martinez - I Got Time
  

• Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
  

• Martin D Fowler - 1 Ships III
  

• Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross - Empty Places
  

• Cliff Martinez - Speight Lived Here
  

• Max de Wardener - Snowflakes
  

• Cliff Martinez - I'm in the Pink
  

• Jeff Beal - I Think I Smell Gas
  

• Paul Leonard-Morgan - Anderson's Theme
  

• DJ Shadow - Stem/Long Stem
  

• Star Hopper - Through the Heliopause
  

• Martin D Fowler - 1 Ships XII
  

• Marcus Bagalà - Untitledthingthing
  

• Martin D Fowler - 1 Ships XIII
  

• Jon Brion - Cubes
  

• Marcus Bagalà - Frets: Too Too
  

• Cliff Martinez - Will It Hurt
  

• Cristobal Tapia De Veer - Pianissimo
  

• Nine Inch Nails - 9 Ghosts
  

• Cliff Martinez - Abscess
  

• Cliff Martinez - Aortic Aneurysm
  

• Cliff Martinez - Not Leaving This Circus
  

• Cliff Martinez - If Anyman Thirst
  

• Cliff Martinez - First Sleep
  

• Kyle Dixon, Michael Stein - Eleven
  

• Daniel Hart - Critical Issue for the Future
  

• Helios - Even Today
  

• Lee Greenwood - God Bless The U.S.A.