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Prof. Sam Lehman-Wilzig: Democracy on the Ropes? Not so Fast!
How’s democracy doing? It’s under attack in Israel, the U.S., and several other countries around the world. Indeed, in 2018 no less than two Harvard political science professors published a best-selling book: “How Democracies Die.” It was a warning regarding democracy’s slow slide to autocracy around the world (https://www.amazon.com/How-Democracies-Die-Steven-Levitsky/dp/1524762938).
Yet, the picture is far better – at least more nuanced – that one would think from such dire prognostications. Just as what happens to person’s body during and after a serious illness, democracies use their built-in immune system to attack and strengthen the body politic. So while researchers and the media focus attention on the attackers and national examples of weakened democracy, far less attention is paid to successful counterattacks.
Before turning to Israel and the U.S., here’s a quick round-the-world rundown. In the Philippines, former President Duterte is on trial for mass murder of innocent civilians during his indiscriminate anti-drug cartel campaign in which thousands (perhaps tens of thousands) of people were killed by state security forces in their dragnet of any and all people even possibly connected to the drug trade.
South Korea’s democratic pushback was even faster. In late December 2024 the country’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol, was impeached by the National Assembly in response to Yoon’s declaration of martial law earlier that very month. By April 2025 the country’s Supreme Court already upheld the impeachment, and he is now being criminally investigated as well.
On the other side of the world in Brazil (South America’s largest democracy), former President Bolsonaro is also on trial. Along with several dozen people, he is under indictment for an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2022 election that he lost by 51%-49%. Investigators discovered that he had plotted to assassinate not only the election winner (Lula), but also the latter’s VP running mate and a Supreme Court justice! If successful, Bolsonaro would then have been able to declare a “state of siege,” suspend the other branches of government, and remain in power as a “caretaker president”.
If that sounds familiar, then perhaps Bolsonaro was trying to take Trump’s January 6, 2001, mob attack on Congress one step further (adding assassination). But here too, although ultimately Trump was not brought to trial (being reelected president halted the judicial process), the U.S. Senate – and then the slow wheels of justice – earlier halted his unconstitutional attempt to undermine the democratic process.
And that brings us to Israel and its Supreme Court. Here the court came very close to (“temporarily”) removing Netanyahu as prime minister for the duration of his triple indictment trial. They didn’t do so in part because of a lacuna in the law: government ministers cannot serve so long as they are under indictment and trial, but the Knesset didn’t add “prime minister” to that law (one MK suggested they do so; Tommy Lapid the Justice Minister back then nixed that, arguing that it was “inconceivable” for such a thing to happen. In an ironic twist of history, his son Yair Lapid is now Leader of the Opposition!) However, the ongoing recent Qatar-gate investigation might yet lead the Court to rule Bibi ineligible to continue in office – assuming that he is found personally culpable in the scandal.
Above all else, of course, there’s the bulwark called “the public”: demos kratos in the Athenian Greek original (“people power”). The Israeli government’s attempt at a “Judicial Revolution” (or “Judicial Reform” if you’re sympathetic to that effort) was stymied by massive protests pre-Oct. 7, 2023. Here Israel’s right-wing leadership was taking a page or two out of the Hungarian experience where Victor Orban has slowly undermined and eviscerated the main pillars of Hungarian democracy: the media, the judiciary, and finally the legislature. But the Israeli public is made of stronger stuff than their Hungarian counterparts.
In short, the assault on democratic institutions continues apace. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the present Trump presidency: removing government subsidies from academia, gutting the federal bureaucracy, verbally attacking the judiciary, threatening to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve Board, and even claiming presidential authority to do whatever the president sees fit without restriction.
Yet here too the “system” is pushing back: federal judges are halting several policies that don’t have proper authorization or logic (e.g., unfettered deportation of illegal immigrants); state district attorneys suing the federal government for its over-reach; local town meetings where Republican voters are upbraiding their elected representatives for going along with every Trumpian move.
The latter is particularly instructive – for better and for worse. On the one hand, in Israel and in the U.S., public opinion polls show a clear, sharp decline in support for Bibi’s and Trump’s policies; indeed, a significant majority are against what their government is doing. On the other hand, however, the government has a temporary bulletproof vest called “until the next elections.” This is particularly evident in Israel: the polls have shown for many months that the currently ruling parties will find themselves deep in the opposition when elections are held (November 2026 at the latest). Thus, they have no incentive to undermine Bibi’s government of which they are an integral part.
The result: elections are the foundation of democracy, but also its Achilles’ Heel. If and when radical circumstantial change occurs (e.g., Gaza War; Trumpian economic disaster), elections can’t be easily moved up (parliamentary system), if at all (presidential system).
The conclusion? As we see throughout the world, the other pillars of democracy supported by the populace must – and most do – step forward to ensure their democracy’s survival. As opposed to the depressing impression we might have from focusing only on the attackers, democracy’s immune systems are still alive and kicking in Israel, America, and many other countries around the globe
