The United States moved toward higher capacity and lower democracy between 1989 and 2005

Evidence

The history of Peru has already shown us that regime locations fluctuate from year to year. Although I would hardly have believed it in 1989, my own reading of the U.S. trajectory is that between 1989 and 2005 the regime increased slightly in capacity but declined significantly in democracy. On one side, that is, investment in military forces and repressive means expanded the American state’s control over people, activities, and resources within its territory. On the other, binding consultation declined as the national executive increasingly launched foreign military interventions without consulting Figure 4. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 424

Categorization

• XREF: Supports the reader’s asymmetry thesis by showing even a high-capacity democracy shifting away from binding consultation—relevant to whether constitutional absorption genuinely defuses politicization. — connects to: America has repeatedly overcome reactionary authoritarian movements before — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 1065; The Clinton era reframed US hegemony as humanitarian democracy promotion — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 459; US policy has moved from Liberalism 2 back toward Liberalism 1. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 404
• QUESTION: Tilly’s US claim is from 2005 framing; does the post-2005 trajectory (surveillance state, executive action) continue the same vector?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 424

Broader Connections

• US policy has moved from Liberalism 2 back toward Liberalism 1. #expands (0.85) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 404
• America has repeatedly overcome reactionary authoritarian movements before #complicates (0.72) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 1065
• The Clinton era reframed US hegemony as humanitarian democracy promotion #qualifies (0.71) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 459