In their recent New York Times essay, Steven Levitsky, Lucan Way, and Daniel Ziblatt argue that the United States has crossed over into a form of competitive authoritarianism, a system that may have elections but in which dissent is costly and the playing field is tilted against the opposition. Civil rights attorney Sherrilyn Ifill has long sounded the alarm about the “grave crisis of democracy” in the United States, due to the influence of racism and the erosion of the rule of law. They all cite the importance of civic engagement and “getting off the sidelines” in confronting authoritarianism. But how have people in this country and globally turned around autocratic systems? Often, it’s been through broad democratic fronts and collective mass action.

Iconic pro-democracy movements include the U.S. civil rights movement, the Polish Solidarity movement, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and the “No” campaign that ousted Augusto Pinochet in Chile. More recent examples are the successful civic uprisings against autocratic leaders in Brazil (where the slide to autocracy under President Jair Bolsonaro was stopped), South Korea (where an autocratic President Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and removed from power), and Serbia (where a corrupt Prime Minister Milos Vucevic was removed, though the democratic turn-around remains incomplete). All featured these key elements:

• Sustained mass participation by diverse groups and sectors in society.
• Tactical innovation including the use of organized noncooperation, like boycotts and strikes, that directly remove a regime’s sources of power.
• Defections within key pillars upholding authoritarian regimes like businesses, religious organizations, unions, professional associations, bureaucracies, and security forces.
• Resilience and discipline in the face of rising repression.

[...]Civil resistance “works” by raising the costs of tyranny and systematically removing the sources of power for an autocrat and his enablers. All authoritarian regimes rely on support from key institutions in society, including political parties, businesses, unions, religious organizations, bureaucracies, courts, media outlets, and security forces. When members of these pillars stop cooperating with the regime – workers deny their labor and skills, businesses withhold financial contributions, bureaucrats do things slowly or ineffectively, faith organizations stop providing moral approval, soldiers defy orders to use violence against protestors – it becomes difficult or impossible for autocrats to stay in power.

That explains why organized noncooperation by key pillars is so key to the success of pro-democracy movements. In South Korea last year, mass action by key sectors played a critical role in stopping an attempted coup. Actions included the Confederation of Trade Unions, which threatened an indefinite general strike unless President Yoon Suk Yeol lifted martial law, then launched sector-specific, time-bound strikes and walk-outs by cafeteria workers and others.