Abstract
Democratic institutions were on the rise in the 1990s but in many instances are under stress currently threatened by populist authoritarianism. The independence of the civil service, of the courts, and of the press is under various levels of threat in many countries including long-established liberal democracies. This article explores the causes and consequences of this threat particularly for the ability of governments to function effectively and lawfully.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aberbach
J. D.
Rockman
B. A.
(1995 ). The political views of U.S. senior federal executives, 1970-1992 . Journal of Politics , 57 , 838 -852 .
2.
Berendt
J.
(2017 , August 1 ). Poland defies E.U. ban on logging in ancient forest . The New York Times , p. A8 .
3.
Billner
A.
(2018 , August 19 ). Nationalists poised to win big in upcoming Swedish election . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , p. A15 .
4.
Bracher
K.-D.
(1967 ). The technique of the national socialist seizure of power . In
Eschenburg
T.
Stern
F.
(Eds.), The path to dictatorship 1918-1933: Ten essays by German scholars (
Conway
J.
, Trans.). Garden City, NY : Anchor Books .
5.
Browning
C.
(2017 , April 20 ). Lessons from Hitler’s rise . New York Review of Books . Retrieved from https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/04/20/lessons-from-hitlers-rise/
6.
Cramer
K. J.
(2017 ). The politics of resentment . Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press .
7.
Dahl
R. A.
(1963 ). A preface to democratic theory . Chicago, IL : University of Chicago Press .
8.
Davidson
J.
(2018 , July 27 ). EPA tried to discredit retirees after the Washington Post published their criticisms . The Washington Post . Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2018/07/27/epa-tried-to-discredit-retirees-after-the-post-published-their-criticisms/
9.
Finer
S. E.
(1980 ). Princes, parliaments and the public service . Parliamentary Affairs , 33 , 353 -372 .
10.
Fisher
M.
(2018 , August 15 ). Why spiraling prices make populist strongmen nervous . The New York Times , p. A6 .
11.
Fukuyama
F.
(1989 , Summer ). The end of history? The National Interest . Summer , pp. 1 -18 .
12.
Gall
C.
(2018 , August 14 ). Economic tumult in Turkey is test for an autocrat . The New York Times , pp. A1 , A8 .
13.
Halperin
M.
(with
Clapp
P.
Kanter
A
). (1974 ). Bureaucratic politics and foreign policy . Washington, DC : The Brookings Institution .
14.
Jardina
A.
(2019 ). White nationalism . New York, NY : Cambridge University Press .
15.
Johnson
K.
(2018 , July 16 ). How Venezuela struck it poor: The tragic—and totally avoidable—self-destruction of one of the world’s richest oil economies . Foreign Policy . Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/07/16/how-venezuela-struck-it-poor-oil-energy-chavez
16.
Kamisar
B.
(2017 , February 2 ). Republicans impatient with anti-Trump civil servants . The Hill . Retrieved from http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/317651-gop-lawmakers-impatient-with-anti-trump-civil-servants
17.
Kefford
G.
Ratcliff
S.
(2018 , August 16 ). Republicans and democrats are more polarized on immigration than parties in the U.K. or Australia . Here’s why . The Washington Post Monkey Cage . Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/08/16/republicans-and-democrats
18.
Kingsley
P.
(2018 , December 30 ). On the surface, Hungary is a democracy—But what lies underneath? Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , p. A19 .
19.
Kruzel
J.
(2018 , March 13 ). Is Donald Trump right that aluminum and steel industries have been decimated? PolitiFact . Retrieved from https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/mar/13/donald-trump/donald-trump-right-aluminum-steel-industries-have-/
20.
Kyle
J.
Gultchin
L.
(2018 ). Populists in power around the world . Tony Blair Institute for Global Change . Retrieved from http://institute.global/insight/renewing-centre/populists-power-around-world
21.
Levitsky
S.
Ziblatt
D.
(2018 ). How democracies die: What history reveals about our future . New York, NY : Crown Publishing .
22.
Levitz
E.
(2017 , January 5 ). The GOP just gave congress the power to cut the salaries of individual civil servants to $1 . The New York Times . Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/01/congress-can-now-cut-the-pay-of-individual-civil-servants.html
23.
Lopes
M.
Faiola
A.
(2019 , January 6 ). New president shifts Brazil to the far right . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , p. A11 .
24.
Majone
G.
(1997 ). From the positive to the regulatory state: Causes and consequences of changes in the mode of governance . Journal of Public Policy , 17 , 139 -167 .
25.
Maranto
R.
(1993 ). Politics and bureaucracy in the modern presidency: Careerists and appointees in the Reagan Administration . Westport, CT : Praeger .
26.
Mazur
S.
Możdżeń
M.
Oramus
M.
(2018 ). The instrumental and ideological politicisation of senior positions in Poland’s civil service and its selected consequences . NISPAcee Journal of Public Administration and Policy , 11 , 63 -89 .
27.
Merton
R. K.
(1957 ). Social theory and social structure . Glencoe, IL : The Free Press .
28.
Milne
R.
(2018 , August 26 ). Sweden’s social dems face populist threat . OZY . Retrieved from https://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/swedens-social-dems-face-populist-threat/88912?utms.8/26/2018
29.
Miroff
N
Goldstein
A.
Sacchetti
M.
(2018 , July ). “Deleted” families: What went wrong with Trump’s family-separation effort? The Washington Post . Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/deleted-families-what-went-wrong-with
30.
Moe
T. M.
(1985 ). The politicized presidency . In
Chubb
J. E.
Peterson
P. E.
(Eds.), New directions in American politics (pp. 267 -329 ). Washington, DC : The Brookings Institution .
31.
Mounk
Y.
(2018 ). The people vs. democracy: Why our freedom is in danger and how to save it . Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press .
32.
Mounk
Y.
Kyle
J.
(2018 , December 26 ). What populists do to democracies . The Atlantic . Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/hard-data-populism-bolsonaro-trump/578878
33.
Nathan
R. P.
(1983 ). The administrative presidency . New York, NY : MacMillan .
34.
O’Harrow
R.
(2018 , July 29 ). White House uses foreign aid agency to give jobs to Trump loyalists . The Washington Post . Retrieved from http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-use-foreign-aid-agency-to-give-jobs/
35.
Olsen
J. P.
(1983 ). Organized democracy: Political institutions in a welfare state . Oslo, Norway : Universitetsforlaget .
36.Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development . (2016 ). Trust in government . Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/gov/trust-in-government
37.
Ortiz-Ortega
V.
(2018 ). Populism and democracy . Washington, DC : The Woodrow Wilson Center Mexico Institute . Retrieved from https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/populism-and-democracy
38.Pew Research Center . (2016 ). Public trust in government: 1958-2014 . Retrieved from http://www.people-press.org/2014/11/13/public-trust-in-government
39.
Sides
J.
Tesler
M.
Vavreck
L.
(2018 ). Identity crisis: The 2016 presidential campaign and the battle for the meaning of America . Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press .
40.
Tenpas
K. D.
Kamarck
E.
Zeppos
N. W.
(2017 , July 20 ). Tracking turnover in the Trump administration . Retrieved from https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration
41.
Toro
F.
(2019 , January 4 ). The cynicism of Evo Morales’s Reelection bid in Bolivia . The Washington Post . Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/04/cynicism-evo-moraless-reelection-bid-bolivia/
42.
Urbinati
N.
(2019 ). Political theory of populism . Annual Review of Political Science , 22 , 111 -127 .
43.Wikipedia . (2018 ). History of the steel industry (1970-present) . Retrieved from https://en_wikipedia.org/wiki/history-of-the-steel-industry/1970E2%/80%/q.to.present
44.
Witte
G.
(2019 , January 6 ). Hungarians march against government . Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , p. A10 .