The road to dictatorship is cleared by the expansion of executive power. Whether in Hungary, Turkey, El Salvador, or Venezuela, elected presidents and prime ministers have used their constitutional authority and legislative majorities to undermine, and ultimately capture, other institutions.
These countries are just illustrative of a broader trend: anti-democratic executives have progressively packed the judiciary, purged the civil service, undermined electoral management bodies, silenced independent media, prosecuted dissidents, restricted non-governmental organizations, regulated the business sector in favor of cronies, and politicized the security forces. Small actions against those institutions, under the cover of executive immunity, eventually accumulate into the breakdown of democracy.
While Kellogg Institutue is not formally a partner of the Global Democracy Coalition, many of our coalition partners will be participating in this important initiative, underscoring the urgency of defending democratic institutions before they are dismantled from within.