Richard Chew is joined by Susan Stokes, the Blake Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, director of the Chicago Center on Democracy, and author of “The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies.”

Stokes highlighted the centralization of power in the U.S. and other countries, rising income inequality, and the role of political leaders in exploiting grievances. She noted that democratic backsliding is driven by intentional strategies, such as gerrymandering and media manipulation, and is exacerbated by partisan polarization and misinformation. 

One of the major types of backsliding leaders, Stokes explained, is the right-wing ethno-nationalist. "And those are leaders who . . . use antagonism against minorities, be it racial minorities, religious minorities, ethnic sexual minorities, sometimes women too, to distract people from the class politics that, in a sense, has given rise to their power.

"So you come to power in part because people are angry about losing ground economically, and then, if you don't want to engage in real social spending and reducing those economic inequalities, blame minorities, blame immigrants, blame affirmative action, that that's what's taking things away from you. . . . And we see that certainly in the United States." 

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