Embedded Files
The first section here has sources that reveal the rapid undermining of democracy towards an authoritarian breakthrough. They use categories to make the vast destruction graspable, charts to make it visible, and trackers to show the depth.
The second section (below) introduces the research, strategy, and practice of resistance movements.
Authoritarian Playbook 2025: How an authoritarian president will dismantle our democracy and what we can do to protect it. Plus 10 recommendations for building the democracy of tomorrow. – January 2024
Bright Line Watch: Monitoring democratic practices, resilience, and threats.
Trump’s Authoritarian Action Tracker | introduction at week 3
Categories:
Undermining Democratic Institutions & Rule of Law; Dismantling federal government
Suppressing Dissent & Controlling Information
Dismantling Social Protections & Civil Rights; Enrichment & Corruption
Attacking Science, Environment, Health, Arts, & Education
Aggressive Foreign Policy & Global Destabilization; Nationalism
Trump Tyranny Tracker: Daily recap of power grabs, lawless moves, and the fight to stop Trump.
Trump is deploying 10 tools to become an autocratic leader
Weaponizing the U.S. Department of Justice for political purposes
Ending the independence of independent agencies
Replacing expert civil servants with political loyalists
Circumventing Congress' power to decide how to spend federal funds through presidential impoundment
Weakening the independent media and news reporting
Misusing the Insurrection Act against Americans to stifle dissent
Neutralizing the Senate's role of confirming executive branch nominees
Attacking the rule of law
Threatening elections and serving a third term
Launching government attacks on civil society and perceived enemies
In backsliding democracies, political corruption becomes a feature, not a bug, used to reward loyalists and co-opt dissenters.
Project 2025 Tracker: Tracks the implementation of Project 2025.
Defending Democracy
Defending Democracy
Research, strategy, and practice of resisting authoritarian regimes.
Why Protest?
Why Protest?
Mass nonviolent protests build a sense of unity, connection, and visible size.
It's cathartic and joyful in the face of daily pain and bad news. You have good company.
Create social proof so more people want to join.
Shift social norms about what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
Disrupt the administration’s “violent terrorists” narrative. It's hard to paint Americans as terrorists when they're exercising free speech rights with songs and inflatable costumes.
Invite lots of people to join us. Show that resistance is everywhere and it’s growing.
Courage is contagious. Show that a better world is possible, it’s not scary, and you can be part of it.
Build large-scale mobilization for the 3.5% “rule.”
Show decision-makers that lots of people are fed up. They, too, can stand up. There is safety here and authoritarian takeover is not inevitable.
Create the social permission to speak up with family, at work, in our communities; the permission for groups to stop complying with the regime.
Combine protests with strategic non-cooperation like the Montgomery bus boycott.
Elicit loyalty shifts within key pillars of support.
Reach neighbors who aren’t yet engaged. Help them take the first step and connect with others who are ready to act.
The 2018 blue wave is directly tied to the number of people who turned out at 2017 women’s marches. More voter turnout in locations with more protest turnout. The Nov. 2025 election benefited from No Kings protests.
Within a broad strategy against authoritarian takeover, protests refute the idea that the authoritarian has a mandate. That introduces defiance into the minds of stakeholders who’re deciding whether to stand up or capitulate.
Build capacity for action.
It's harder to take away rights that people regularly exercise like our first amendment rights.
Audiences for protests
Audiences for protests
The ones we're protesting.
People in positions of power to block elements of authoritarian takeover (if they have the courage).
People on the sidelines we can attract into the pro-democracy movement.
People worldwide watching our nation become a rogue state, threatening allies, abandoning the vulnerable, and unleashing damage on them.
Intro Videos
Intro Videos
Intro: What’s Next in the Fight?: Concise intro to winning pro-democracy campaigns, pillars of support, and strategic non-cooperation; 10 min segment at 31:05 by Maria Stephan in the No Kings #1 debrief
How do we get to mass defiance?: The next tool in our toolbox is to build a culture of defiance, share the real ways people are hurting from the regime’s actions, and hold accountable those who capitulate and support the regime; 10 min segment at 38:43 by Jiggy Geronimo in the What’s Next After No Kings? call
Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know: Erica Chenoweth (11 min)
History and Practice of Nonviolent Resistance: What makes a successful movement, Erica Chenoweth, 18 min
Pillars of Support Explained (4 min) | A practical framework for action
The success of nonviolent civil resistance: TEDx, Erica Chenoweth (13 min)
Why Civil Resistance Works: Erica Chenoweth (8 min)
Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict: Maria Stephan (7 min)
Podcasts
Podcasts
“What’s the Plan?” with Indivisible’s Co-founders (YouTube playlist, podcast)
Protests, political violence and its alternatives with Erica Chenoweth: Interview about the study that found that 3.5% of the population taking to the streets (plus strategic non-cooperation) is enough to block authoritarian takeover; WITHpod & transcript, May 6, 2025 (57 min)
Jimmy Kimmel and the Power of Public Pressure: a wide ranging discussion about the resistance movement; The New Yorker’s Political Scene Podcast, Sept. 26, 2025 (49 min)
How Bad Is It?: Three Political Scientists Say America Is No Longer a Democracy: political scientists Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt, and Lucan A. Way discuss how Trump tipped the United States from democracy into competitive authoritarianism, where elections persist but the ruling party rigs the system in its favor; New Yorker’s Political Scene Podcast, Dec. 11, 2025 (46 min). More detail in their Foreign Affairs article, The Price of American Authoritarianism.
Long-Form Videos
Long-Form Videos
A Force More Powerful: A Century of Nonviolent Conflict - A documentary series of case studies in six 1/2 hour segments. Episode 1: India, USA, South Africa. Episode 2: Denmark, Poland, Chile.
Bringing Down a Dictator - documentary on Otpor! defeating Milosevic in Yugoslavia (55 min)
The Power and Promise of Nonviolent Action - Maria Stephan (90 min)
In-Depth
In-Depth
Civil Resistance: What Everyone Needs to Know (book) | Why Civil Resistance Works (book), shorter PDF
Nonviolent Action Lab: Understanding how nonviolent action can achieve democratic aims.
podcast: The latest research, insights, and ideas on how nonviolent action can — or sometimes fails — to transform injustice.
In the HKS Ash Center for research and teaching on advancing democracy through civil resistance.
Pro-democracy Organizing against Autocracy in the United States: A Strategic Assessment & Recommendations: Chenoweth & Marks, PDF
Q&A and Cautionary Updates Regarding the 3.5% Rule: Chenoweth, PDF
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