• Home
  • Opinion
  • Quizzes
  • Redistricting
  • Sections
  • About Us
  • Voting
  • Independent Voter News
  • Campaign Finance
  • Civic Ed
  • Directory
  • Election Dissection
  • Events
  • Fact Check
  • Glossary
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. balance of power>

Global watchdog blames Trump for declining U.S. democracy

David Hawkings
February 05, 2019

American democratic norms are facing an attack unprecedented in modern times as a result of President Trump's actions, the global democracy watchdog Freedom House says in its annual assessment of freedom around the world.

The group's president, Michael Abramowitz, uses the report to accuse Trump of undermining such pillars of American democracy as the separation of powers, a free press, an independent judiciary and the legitimacy of elections.


While American democratic values were undermined by President Obama's prosecution of media leaks and President George W. Bush's warrantless collections of telephone records, "there remains little question that President Trump exerts an influence on American politics that is straining our core values and testing the stability of our constitutional system," he wrote. "No president in living memory has shown less respect for its tenets, norms and principles."

Freedom House gets most of its budget from the federal government and since 1973 has been issuing its widely respected ratings of countries as "free," "partly free" or "not free" – based on scores in two dozen categories ranging from press freedoms to fair elections, political pluralism to civil liberties. The new report, out Monday, ranks the United Sates No. 52 on the roster of 87 countries categorized as free. (At the end of the last decade it was No. 31.) The 2019 report says recent "decline in the rule of law" put American democracy "on a level with Greece, Croatia, and Mongolia," and well below such democracies as Germany and Britain.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Last month another watchdog group, Transparency International, said that threats to the American system of checks and balances had dropped the United States out of the top 20 "cleanest" countries on its annual Corruption Perceptions Index.

"The reality is that other countries pay close attention to the conduct of the world's oldest functioning democracy. The continuing deterioration of U.S. norms will hasten the ongoing decline in global democracy. Indeed, it has already done so," Abramowitz wrote in a rare signed essay, included in the report, about the particular challenges to American democracy.

"We cannot take for granted that institutional bulwarks against abuse of power will retain their strength, or that our democracy will endure perpetually," he concluded. "Rarely has the need to defend its rules and norms been more urgent. Congress must perform more scrupulous oversight of the administration than it has to date. The courts must continue to resist pressures on their independence. The media must maintain their vigorous reporting even as they defend their constitutional prerogatives. And citizens, including Americans who are typically reluctant to engage in the public square, must be alert to new infringements on their rights and the rule of law."

From Your Site Articles
  • U.S. seen as more corrupt in 2020 - The Fulcrum ›
  • U.S. rated a 'flawed democracy' for 5th straight year - The Fulcrum ›
  • Report: Racial and political inequities plague democracy - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Freedom House | Championing Democracy ›
  • America Is Not a Democracy - The Atlantic ›
  • Why is American democracy in danger? - The Washington Post ›
  • Donald Trump's feud with Congress puts American democracy on ... ›
balance of power

Want to write
for The Fulcrum?

If you have something to say about ways to protect or repair our American democracy, we want to hear from you.

Submit
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Confirm that you are not a bot.
×
Follow

Support Democracy Journalism; Join The Fulcrum

The Fulcrum daily platform is where insiders and outsiders to politics are informed, meet, talk, and act to repair our democracy and make it live and work in our everyday lives. Now more than ever our democracy needs a trustworthy outlet

Contribute
Contributors

Grand Canyon gap in America today

Dave Anderson

Chief Justice John Roberts and Chief Justice Roger Taney are Twins– separated by only 165 years

Stephen E. Herbits

Conservatives attacking Americans’ First Amendment rights

Steve Corbin

To advance racial equity, policy makers must move away from the "Black and Brown" discourse

Julio A. Alicea

Policymakers must address worsening civil unrest post Roe

Sarah K. Burke

Video: How to salvage U.S. democracy from the "tyranny of the minority"

Our Staff
latest News

What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

Bradford Fitch
11h

The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

David J. Toscano
12h

Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Leland R. Beaumont
12h

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

C.Anne Long
02 October

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Debilyn Molineaux
02 October

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
02 October
Videos
Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Video: Expert baffled by Trump contradicting legal team

Our Staff
Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Video: Do white leaders hinder black aspirations?

Our Staff
Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Video: How to prepare for student loan repayments returning

Our Staff
Video: The history of Labor Day

Video: The history of Labor Day

Our Staff
Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Video: Trump allies begin to flip as prosecutions move forward

Our Staff
Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Video Rewind: Trans-partisan practices and the "superpower of respect"

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Our Staff
02 October

Podcast: Is reunification still possible?

Our Staff
27 September

Podcast: All politics is local

Our Staff
22 September

Podcast: How states hold fair elections

Our Staff
14 September
Recommended
What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

What really are “special interests” in Washington - and how they influence Congress

Contributors
The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

The kids are alright: The younger generation’s inspiring legal fight against climate change

Big Picture
Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Living wisely: Addressing economic faults for a sustainable future

Corporate Responsibility
The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

The American school meal debate: It all comes down to food as market goods or public goods

State
It’s time to retire Calvinism

It’s time to retire Calvinism

Contributors
Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcast: On democracy and its current torments

Podcasts