Devising Playbooks for Civil-Society Groups to Fight Authoritarianism
s Ian Bassin studied the rise of left- and right-wing authoritarian regimes that came to power over the past two decades, he saw they had one thing in common: The governments used everything at their disposal — litigation, voting restrictions, policy development, and public messaging — to restrict democratic rights.
To fight back, civil society organizations need to work in a similarly all-encompassing way, Bassin says. He says that when he founded Protect Democracy during the first Trump administration, he wanted the nonprofit to mirror successful efforts in other countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, that used a multifaceted approach to beat back antidemocratic tendencies. Just as there is a playbook to snuff out democracy, Bassin says, there is a playbook for civil society organizations to fight back.
“You need a movement and individual organizations that are willing to use every lawful lever to defend constitutional, representative, democratic self-governance,” says Bassin, who was named a MacArthur “genius” fellow in 2023.
Like a traditional think tank, Protect Democracy’s experts — which include liberals and conservatives — have cranked out reports on election certification, Gen Z attitudes about democracy, presidential budget authority, and other subjects. The nonprofit also has developed software to help election officials maintain voting data and pursued lawsuits with other litigants. One case it helped bring against the Trump administration prompted the U.S. Department of Agriculture in June to pause its plan to collect personal data from federal food-assistance recipients.
Taking cases in front of a judge and parsing policy proposals are essential to counter tyranny, Bassin says. But he says those actions must be buttressed by movements that bring together people with different political viewpoints to defend “the foundational elements of a rule-of-law-based democratic society.”
That’s why Protect Democracy and its partner, the Horizons Project, this spring developed a series of how-to guides called “The Faithful Fight” for religious leaders. The effort has produced tool kits on “welcoming the stranger” to communities, protecting against cyberattacks, advocating for a multiracial democracy, and practicing civil disobedience.
Legislation and lawsuits aren’t enough to bolster democracy. Americans also need to learn how to navigate their differences.
Faith leaders, Bassin says, can play an essential role in restoring what Alexis de Tocqueville called the “habits of the heart” to inspire civic participation outside of political and judicial institutions.
“If we’re going to address the current crisis of our democracy, we can’t just address it with lawsuits and legislation,” he says. “We need to address it at the root level, which is how we, as American citizens, navigate our differences with one another.”
