Authoritarianism

The Swinging of the Political Pendulum

An Issue of the Anti-Authoritarian Playbook Newsletter

Many people have tried to assure me that however difficult the political, economic, and social conditions in the U.S. may become under authoritarian rule, improvements are on the way - the political pendulum inevitably swings back. The thing is,…

Article

The Antidote to Authoritarianism with Jiva Manske

Inform Your Resistance Season 4: Episode 3

a black and white photo on people marching on the street, wearing hats and dhotis

In this episode, Koki and Jiva lay out key ways that the Left can and must build a shared vision of democracy, while the pro-democracy movement is in a moment of crisis. They talk through the “what is to be done?”, drawing inspiration history.

Podcast

Burning Down the House

What’s Behind the U.S. Antidemocratic Reaction?

Katherine Stewart traces the rise of the antidemocratic movement fueling Trumpism and the authoritarian Right in this adapted excerpt from her book Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy.

Article

Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days

Authoritarian Gains and Consolidation

A collage of hand-drawn signs protesting ICE and fascism against a purple background

In this wide-ranging piece covering the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, PRA researchers recap the state’s authoritarian gains and sweeping repressive policies, from LGBTQ rights to immigration and Christian Zionism.

Article

Why Authoritarianism Needs Gender Stereotypes – and Democracy Needs Gender Justice by Annie Wilkinson

Inform Your Resistance Season 4: Episode 2

A sign that reads "I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own" - Audre Lorde

In this episode of Inform Your Resistance, Koki reads “Gender and Authoritarianism: A Framework for Analysis and Action” by Annie Wilkinson, as part of our ongoing From the Archives series. From the Archives features those must read and, now, must…

Podcast

From Courts to Clinics

How the Anti-Gender Far Right is Reshaping Texas

Ken Paxton and Greg Abott on a yellow background with a dotted pattern on it.

In Texas, state Attorney General Ken Paxton is testing the powers of the AG to enact wide-ranging right-wing policies, including anti-trans and anti-abortion legislation, that extends beyond state lines.

Article

Gender and Authoritarianism

A Framework for Analysis and Action

A purple checkered background with protestors holding signs in favor of women's rights

Annie Wilkinson provides a framework understanding the rise of anti-gender movements across the globe as part of a wave of autocratization.

Article

Authoritarianism, Criminalization, and Reproductive Injustice

A Roundtable Discussion

a collage of protestors holding signs in favor of abortion.

In this roundtable discussion, seasoned practitioners who work on the front lines of healthcare, reproductive justice, and criminal law join to share insights drawn from their experiences of navigating repression.

Article

Three Way Fight

Author Q&A with Xtn Alexander and Matthew N. Lyons

Woman holds a pink sign that reads "resist trump"

Ben Lorber interviews authors Xtn Alexander and Matthew N. Lyons about their book Three Way Fight, a collection of essays designed to serve as a guide to antifascism and revolution.

Q&A

Three Way Fight

Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism

People holding a red and black flag that reads Anti-Racist Action

This excerpt from Three Way Fight: Revolutionary Politics and Antifascism explores a radical framework that can inform sharper and more effective strategies for organizing for human liberation.

Article

Q&A: Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence

An interview with Scot Nakagawa and Hardy Merriman

a black and white image of men holding flags walking.

A discussion with Hardy Merriman and Scot Nakagawa on the Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence (HOPE-PV) project, and what strategies communities can use to resist political violence.

Q&A

There were glimmers of hope as the national election results came in Tuesday night, such as the advance of reproductive freedom in five states and historic elections of transgender and Black women. Overall, however, the elections delivered a…

Statement

Anti-Immigration Politics with Ethan Fauré: When the Center Helps the Right Capture State Institutions

Inform Your Resistance Season 3: Episode 1

Protestors with signs saying "Immigrants are not criminals" and "No I.C.E. raids"

In this episode, we discuss the origins, unlikely intersections, and influence of the contemporary anti-immigration movement. Ethan provides us with a fascinating overview of how this movement developed, from its White Nationalist origins, with…

Podcast

A student encampment in solidarity with Gaza at Brown university in April 2024 (Credit: Colonel Glenn/Flickr.com)

Unsurprisingly, authoritarian forces in the U.S. are desperate to quell the grassroots upsurge in Palestine solidarity protests by responding with neo-McCarthyist repression tactics, recalling a period of extreme anti-Left repression driven by the U…

Article

Taiwan’s 2024 Elections

Disinformation in the Struggle Between Democracy and Authoritarianism

people standing in a row holding sunflowers. A sign says "Taiwan is not for sale."

Taiwan is often described as Asia’s freest country. Kayo Chang Black details Taiwan’s political history and how the 2024 election cycle resurfaced the authoritarian threat that lurks within Taiwan’s democracy.

Article

The Fight Ahead

How the Electoral Far Right Fared in the 2022 Midterm Elections

White man on stage with hand raised smiling, you can see the letters "ESANTIS" projected behind him.

In October 2022, PRA published a map tracking the Electoral Far Right in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections. Of the 276 candidates tracked by PRA, 155 appeared on the general election ballot. 107 of these candidates won their races. In addition to…

Map

A Bid For Power

Mapping The Electoral Far Right in the 2022 Elections

Photo of gray pickup truck with RW flags in bed with a mock up of a map of the US with blue data points layered on top on the left side of the image

The purpose of this resource is to help understand and visualize how ideas, policies, and factions that have long been associated with the Far Right in the United States have become an ordinary part of U.S. politics. PRA has identified 274 far-right…

Map

A flyer on a pillar that reads: "This is a fascist free zone. Antifa"

Over the last six years, the U.S. has seen a mass wave of nativism that has shifted the “Overton Window” of acceptable politics, making once-marginal aspects of anti-immigrant ideology a part of the mainstream GOP. This has changed the nature of…

Article

Pro-Trump mob assembled in front of the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 (Credit: Blink O'fanaye/Flickr).

In the run-up to the 2020 election, Political Research Associates warned that Trump would never concede defeat and that his volatile mix of supporters would take to the streets to contest the results if he lost at the polls. We recognized the danger…

Statement

Navigating the Narrows

PRA Statement on the Election and Threats to Democracy

An older lady in a shirt with her fist in the air.

Early this morning, and without any legitimate basis, President Trump declared electoral victory and decried voter fraud. Political Research Associates, among other observers, had warned of such moves. So far, the president appears to be following…

Statement

Under the Cover of COVID

Resisting Disaster Authoritarianism, Building Multiracial Feminist Democracy

President Trump Giving an Update at the White House on the Coronavirus Response

The COVID-19 crisis has exposed the inadequacy of our public health and emergency response infrastructure, leaving the heaviest burdens of our distress to fall unevenly, but predictably, along fault lines of race, class, gender, and disability while…

Article

On March 30, in response to the COVID-19 crisis, Hungary’s parliament passed a law allowing the nationalist government to rule…

Article

Tarso Luís Ramos speaking at the Facing Race conference.

I’m a pastor’s kid and I was raised to believe in Martin Luther King Jr.’s inspiring assertion that the arc of history may be long, but it bends towards justice. And, I was raised in a family that had to flee our country when Brazilian democracy…

Webinar

In the Court of the Centrist King

Emmanuel Macron and Authoritarian Liberalism

If Macron is the bulwark against a looming authoritarian nightmare, why does his program look like an assault on the fundamental foundations of democracy in France?

Article

Trading Principles for Power

The U.S. Christian Right's Endorsement of Authoritarian Leaders

On Friday, August 4, Paul Kagame celebrated a landslide victory in Rwanda’s presidential election, securing his third seven-year term as the small, East African country’s leader with nearly 99% of the vote. It was an unsurprising result, given that…

Article

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 13

Political Repression, Surveillance, and PRISONS

The steady expansion of both the power and use of law enforcement in multiple areas of life reflects (and institutionalizes) right-wing worldviews regardless of the political party or identity claims of the speaker. These readings explore the…

Article

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 12

Public Education

From “school choice” schemes and the neoliberal privatization movement to the influence of the Christian Right on curriculum and school policy, public education is a key battleground.

Article

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 10

Economic Justice

As progressives contemplate how to build a movement for justice that can effectively counter such forces, it is necessary to understand how the Corporate Right—what we might term the Chamber of Commerce wing of the conservative movement—is…

Article

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 9

LGBTQ Rights

Opposition to LGBTQ equality has long been both a fundamental value and useful political tool for many American conservative organizations, especially those associated with the Christian Right. Even as visibility and mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ…

Article

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 6

Racism and White Supremacy

Racial inequality remains deeply embedded within U.S. social and economic structures, even as its forms and justifications are in flux. Claims to White racial superiority, though not entirely dead, were largely washed aside by the civil rights…

Article

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 4

Fascism, Authoritarianism, Right-Wing Populism

Right-wing populist movements target superficial or false symbols of elite power, reinforces systems of social privilege and oppression, and are built around a backlash against liberation movements, social reform, or revolution.

Article

Coinciding with Trump’s first 100 days in Office — a period of time historically used as a benchmark to measure the potential of a new president — PRA will share readings, videos, and tools for organizing to inform our collective resistance based on…

Report

Democratic Principles for Antidemocratic Times

Engaging Trump, Defending Human Rights, and Preventing Authoritarianism

The bigotry and false solutions championed by President Donald Trump are not a new phenomenon in American politics. Indeed, the idea that one person’s dignity requires another’s subjugation has been a central contradiction in this country’s founding…

Statement

What time is it?

Why we can’t ignore the momentum of the Right

Broadly speaking, the consensus is that we’re in a time of great instability, revolt, and possibility. History teaches us that in times like these, we need to be both bold and vigilant. Authoritarian, chauvinistic, and bigoted movements assert…

Article

Beyond Trump

Disrupt, Defuse, Compete

To defeat the current upsurge in right-wing populism, progressives will need to disrupt, defuse, and – critically – compete for portions of its constituency.

Article

The Swinging of the Political Pendulum

The Antidote to Authoritarianism with Jiva Manske

Burning Down the House

Trump 2.0’s First 100 Days

Why Authoritarianism Needs Gender Stereotypes – and Democracy Needs Gender Justice by Annie Wilkinson

From Courts to Clinics

Gender and Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism, Criminalization, and Reproductive Injustice

Three Way Fight

Three Way Fight

Q&A: Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence

PRA Statement on the 2024 National Election

Anti-Immigration Politics with Ethan Fauré: When the Center Helps the Right Capture State Institutions

The New Antisemitism and Neo-McCarthyism

Taiwan’s 2024 Elections

The Fight Ahead

A Bid For Power

The Great 2020 Antifa Scare

PRA Statement on the January 6 Insurrection

Navigating the Narrows

Under the Cover of COVID

COVID-19 and Authoritarian Crisis Management in Hungary

Multi-Racial Democracy, or Authoritarianism?

In the Court of the Centrist King

Trading Principles for Power

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 13

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 12

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 10

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 9

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 6

#First100Days Crash Course: Week 4

#First100Days Crash Course

Democratic Principles for Antidemocratic Times

What time is it?

Beyond Trump

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Authoritarianism

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