The Signs of Diminishing Democracy | Opinion

President-elect Donald Trump made policy promises on the campaign trail that I have heard many times before from authoritarian leaders around the world. My organization, Human Rights Watch, has been documenting their playbook for decades from the dismantling of the rule of law to retribution against critics.
Trump seems intent on following that playbook. But that doesn’t mean he will be successful. There is a rich history of activism and a vibrant civil society in the United States ready to defend human rights and democratic institutions. And they have allies around the world who have been down this road before.
My family has lived through prejudice and discrimination across generations. My grandfather left India for Pakistan during the Partition. By the time I entered the world, my family was in Singapore. We soon wound up in Australia after my father’s academic work ran afoul of the then-government, which did not tolerate criticism. My family’s experiences led me to the human rights movement and to join with the millions of advocates all over the world fighting for freedoms.
While Trump was elected by a voting public and will take office in a country where democratic institutions have proven resilient, there are real concerns that his promised policies look more authoritarian than democratic. Here are four things I urge Americans to look out for as Donald Trump takes office.
First, public figures may begin self-censoring. Threats of retribution or of being shut out of the political arena are common among repressive governments. They have a chilling effect that lead politicians and legislators—and even the media—to censor what they say even before they’re targeted. We’ll know this is happening in the United States if increasingly concerning policies from the White House are met with growing silence.
Second, misinformation may be purposefully spread by official sources. Increasingly authoritarian governments such as Hungary have thrived on propaganda and the shutting down of journalism that would otherwise fact check it. We should be on the lookout for a shrinking of the media space like threats to or actual shuttering of trusted news outlets or journalists lacking access to U.S. officials. In the last Trump administration, the daily press briefings from the State Department and the White House were eliminated, leaving Americans with less transparency about what their government was doing.
Third, the public space for expressing discontent may begin to shrink. The freedoms of expression and association are fundamental human rights recognized by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the U.S. Constitution. The ability to protest, to organize, and to publicly critique the government are essential to holding leaders accountable. In illiberal or repressive places, civil society groups are often targeted with arbitrary prosecutions and administrative harassment.
A bill in the House of Representatives that was voted down on Nov. 12 sought to shut down ideological opponents in the U.S. nonprofit sector under the guise of combatting “terrorism-supporting organizations.” That bill is now back to be voted again this week. Make no mistake—these are efforts that would suppress dissent.
Fourth, independent judiciaries and prosecutors are often a target for leaders that want to consolidate power without pushback. They weaponize the justice system to go after their supposed enemies. Trump broadcast his intention to use the Justice Department to do just this.
When we see signs of autocratic actions and policies in the United States, we should understand that they are not new to most people in the world. In fact, we and other human rights organizations have decades of experience defending human rights in the face of abuses by governments and other influential actors around the world.
We should also understand that we are not powerless. Steps like supporting independent media outlets and contacting elected officials with concerns, no matter how small they seem, are important to signal what should not be tolerated and to hold power to account. And civil society organizations in the U.S. and globally remain essential to document what they see and expose the impact of worrisome policies at home and abroad.
Let’s hope that the Trump administration will turn away from the autocratic threats of the campaign and embrace the promise of democratic values and human rights in the United States. But in the meantime, we stand ready to defend the rights and freedoms to which everyone is entitled.
Tirana Hassan is executive director at Human Rights Watch.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.