Is the USA a flawed democracy?
Executive summary
Yes: by widely used comparative measures and by the assessments of many scholars and advocacy groups, the United States fits the definition of a "flawed democracy" today, and a number of expert reports warn it is sliding further toward authoritarian practices; however, other analysts stress that democratic mechanisms and civic resistance still function and that catastrophic collapse is not inevitable [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. Indicators and international rankings: what the scores say
Multiple democracy indices and new measurement tools document a sustained decline in U.S. democratic quality: The Economist Intelligence Unit has categorized the country as a "flawed democracy" for years and its scores fell notably after 2010 [2] [5], while specialized measures and new tools—such as The Century Foundation’s United States Democracy Meter—report sharp deterioration in 2025 and warn of an authoritarian turn [3] [6]. The Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute is reported to have classified the United States as an "electoral autocracy" as of late 2025, a label that signals not merely decline but a transition toward systems where elections exist but meaningful competition, rights, or checks are hollowed out [2].
2. How those declines manifest: institutional changes and executive aggrandizement
Analysts point most sharply to executive aggrandizement—efforts by an elected leader or administration to expand unilateral control, undermine independent agencies, and weaken checks and balances—as a central mechanism of backsliding in the U.S. context, with Brookings and the Brennan Center enumerating examples such as centralized deployments of security forces, politicized firings, and federal pressure on election administration as warning signs [7] [8]. Think tanks and policy groups describe coordinated moves to capture institutional machinery and to delegitimize standard legal constraints, arguing these are precisely the incremental steps that in other democracies presage deeper erosion [9] [3].
3. The role of polarization, norms erosion, and public perception
Partisan polarization and the breakdown of mutual democratic norms amplify institutional risks: surveys and scholarly commentary show widening partisan gaps in how citizens rate democracy and deep disagreement about the legitimacy of opponents, factors that lower the political cost of anti-democratic maneuvers [10] [11]. Commentators from outlets like The Guardian and opinion voices emphasize that delegitimizing judges, spreading false claims about elections, and normalizing extraordinary uses of power accelerate erosion because they both justify and desensitize publics to authoritarian tactics [12] [3].
4. Counterarguments, resilience, and the thin line between warning and prophecy
Not all observers conclude that American democracy has already collapsed: some organizations and analysts stress that elections, civic institutions, and grassroots engagement remain operative and that quieter threats—voter disengagement, administrative decay—are as dangerous as dramatic takeover scenarios [4] [8]. There is also debate among experts about trajectory versus tipping points: Harvard scholars and Brookings warn that decades-long structural vulnerabilities can be exploited suddenly, while other analysts urge attention to civic renewal as the practical defense [11] [7].
5. Verdict: is the United States a flawed democracy?
Taken together, the evidence in reporting and academic assessments supports the direct conclusion that the United States is a flawed democracy today—with meaningful democratic procedures remaining but with serious and accelerating threats to their integrity—and that some new indices and analysts consider the country at even graver risk of "autocratization" if current trends continue [1] [2] [3]. This is not a deterministic sentence: the balance between erosion and resistance now depends on political choices, litigation, civic mobilization, and contestation at the ballot box, as many of the cited sources explicitly argue [12] [4].