Graphic by Lola4556677
“The United States is increasingly resembling an electoral autocracy—one in which semi-competitive elections take place to preserve a semblance of legitimacy, but in which other features of democracy, such as rule of law, separation of powers, press freedom, and civil rights, are weak or nonexistent.”
The System Has Been Rigged Beyond Repair
For decades, pro-democracy advocates in the United States have operated under the assumption that working within the system—electoral engagement, legislative lobbying, and legal challenges—was the surest way to protect and expand democratic rights. That assumption no longer holds.
The balance has tipped. We are no longer dealing with a flawed but salvageable democratic system. The U.S. political system is now structurally rigged in favor of authoritarian forces, using gerrymandering, judicial manipulation, minority rule in the Senate, and state-level autocracy to suppress opposition. The Harvard Kennedy School report Pro-Democracy Organizing Against Autocracy in the United States lays this out in stark detail, illustrating how a combination of electoral manipulation, institutional subversion, and elite complicity has created a system resistant to traditional democratic safeguards.
This shift demands a radical rethinking of strategy. A new organizing principle is needed—one that does not place faith in institutions that have already been co-opted, but instead builds independent power outside them.
The Limits of Electoral Politics and Legal Challenges
The traditional response to creeping authoritarianism has been to mobilize voters, litigate abuses, and push for legislative reforms. But what happens when:
- Election laws are rewritten to ensure minority rule? (See Texas, Florida, and Georgia.)
- Courts are packed with ideological loyalists who rubber-stamp voter suppression? (See the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act.)
- State legislatures and governors openly refuse to certify election results? (See Arizona and Wisconsin.)
As Pro-Democracy Organizing Against Autocracy details, electoral autocracies maintain a semblance of democratic processes while ensuring they remain non-competitive. The playbook that defeated previous waves of democratic backsliding is no longer sufficient. The reality is that in many places, electoral and legal avenues are now performative, not decisive. The MAGA faction has constructed a system that creates the appearance of democracy while ensuring its preferred outcomes.
The Alternative: Building Parallel Structures of Power
When a system is too corrupted to reform from within, it must be constrained from the outside. This means shifting focus from reactive, institutional fights to proactive, structural resistance.
1. Economic Disruption
Corporate and financial backers prop up the authoritarian movement. Strategic economic noncooperation—boycotts, divestments, labor strikes, and mass disruptions—can apply targeted pressure where electoral politics fail. The Harvard report highlights historical examples where economic pressure helped induce defections from authoritarian regimes, proving that financial leverage remains one of the most effective tools of resistance.
2. Community-Based Governance
In states already under de facto one-party rule, activists should focus on building alternative institutions—cooperative economic networks, independent media, and localized safety structures that make the existing government less relevant. Just as resistance movements in authoritarian states create parallel structures of governance, Pro-Democracy Organizing Against Autocracy suggests that pro-democracy forces must shift from advocacy to direct provision of services and community security.
3. Tactical Defections
Every authoritarian regime relies on a network of enablers—law enforcement, business leaders, bureaucrats. The goal must be to erode their support by inducing defections. The Harvard report emphasizes how historical movements have successfully encouraged key figures within oppressive regimes to break ranks. Exposing complicity, leveraging economic consequences, and offering off-ramps to those willing to defect can accelerate cracks in the system.
The Urgent Call to Action: Organizing for a Post-Democratic Reality
The uncomfortable truth is that the United States has already entered an electoral autocracy. Denial will not delay its consolidation. Continuing to play by the old rules ensures only one outcome: the steady erosion of democratic rights under the guise of legality.
The Harvard Kennedy School report provides a roadmap for what must be done: a multiracial, cross-class coalition that does not rely on co-opted institutions but instead builds autonomous power through economic leverage, community governance, and strategic defections.
This is not a call for despair. It is a call for a new organizing principle—one that recognizes the failure of existing institutions to self-correct and instead builds new power outside them. The blueprint is there; it is time to act accordingly.
