The crisis of democracy grabbed defenders only after measurable warning signs accumulated

Evidence

We have been startled into thought. The causes of political change can only be understood with hindsight, and we have little dispassionate distance. For us, right now, and not only in the United States, understanding begins with noting that “there’s something happening here” and trying to grasp what that is. Galvanized by events, lawyers document disregard for the rule of law and constitutional limits; seasoned political observers record violations of informal democratic norms such as tolerance and restraint; journalists chronicle and correct the avalanche of official lies and falsehoods at the same time that they contend with threats to the independence of the press; psychiatrists point to dangerous patterns of overt derision and hostility toward individuals and whole groups by the president and other public officials; and civil rights organizations document an increase in hate crimes. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 366

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Ordinary citizens act politically only when crisis directly summons them — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 314; Delegitimation erodes democracy slowly rather than through crisis or coup — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 42; Demonstrations detached from social movements and diffused into nondemocratic regimes — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1232 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Critics say democracy-collapse warnings echo the apocalyptic rhetoric they condemn #responds-to (0.82) — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities, 681
• Delegitimation erodes democracy slowly rather than through crisis or coup #complicates (0.80) — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 42
• Ordinary citizens act politically only when crisis directly summons them #corroborates (0.78) — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 314
• Demonstrations detached from social movements and diffused into nondemocratic regimes #qualifies (0.72) — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 1232
• Public hostility toward elite experts faded only when the triggering crisis ended #corroborates (0.72) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 184