What is Democratic Backsliding?

Democracy vs. authoritarianism is not a binary choice; we're living in a system with features of both.

It’s human nature to see things as either/or rather than both/and. These cognitive shortcuts help us quickly make sense of the world, but they can miss the nuance of a situation. Meanwhile, the media often exacerbates this by framing issues in terms of 'sides,' favoring drama at the expense of complexity. When defining our political system, we Americans…