Democracy Playbook 2025

7 Pillars to Defend Democracy—The Case of the U.S.

This third edition of the Democracy Playbook updates its predecessor 2019¹ and 2021² publications of evidence-based best practices for reversing democratic backsliding. We have added the research and developments of the eventful past three years—and have done so with an eye toward what is likely to be a challenging 2025. Our aim as before is to help citizens and stakeholders reclaim good governance, transparency, and the rule of law, and strengthen democratic resilience in the face of dangerous autocrats. Recent events in the United States, South Korea, Romania, France, Germany, Georgia, and elsewhere around the world remind us of the precarious challenge democratic actors face to either preserve or rebuild democracy and freedoms in the year ahead.³ The far-reaching consequences of a decades-long run of global authoritarian resurgence and democratic decay (albeit with fits and starts) make renewing, reenergizing, and advancing liberal democracy all the more necessary.

In the introduction to the 2021 edition of the Democracy Playbook,⁴ we focused on democracy principles for global stakeholders. We did so with an eye toward the U.S. launching the Summit for Democracy process in which Brookings (including authors of the Playbook) played a leading role on behalf of civil society as cohort co-leads.⁵ In contrast to the optimism of that moment, the situation that presents itself today in the U.S. raises heightened concerns about the resilience of democracy at home and abroad.

Experts across the ideological spectrum agree that the U.S. at the federal level constitutes a backsliding democracy,⁶ although there are differing views on how fast and far that slide might go, including at the state level where there is also erosion.⁷ The health of U.S. democracy is of critical importance within and beyond its borders.⁸

Accordingly, for the introduction to this 2025 refresh of the Playbook, the editors focus on the following question: What does the scholarship and practice of democracy promotion globally teach us about this critical juncture in the U.S.? From the extensive body of newly updated research in the Playbook that follows, we, in this introductory essay, identify seven foundational pillars. Each is essential to the continuity of democratic governance and to protect freedoms and rights in the U.S. Should these pillars collapse, autocratic and illiberal forces have their own playbook and are prepared to rebuild the American political system in their own fashion, fundamentally reshaping the foundations of power and governance. Because all of this has profound international implications, we also consider those, including the need for others to take on some of the democracy promotion work the U.S. has historically done. This introduction and this Playbook draw upon lessons learned, examples, and action-oriented steps Americans and democracy stakeholders everywhere can take to reinforce democracy, shore up its core elements to withstand another and more dangerous incoming stress test, and seize the opportunity to strengthen U.S. democratic resilience.

While the U.S. is the focus of these introductory pages, the body of the Playbook as a whole maintains its concentration on defending and strengthening democracy globally and has been newly revised and refreshed to take account of developments since the 2021 edition. We will continue to provide comprehensive updates to the Playbook in the future.

Concerns about the health of democracy in the U.S. are not a new phenomenon; our democratic institutions have been tested before. Nevertheless, the current threats to our system of governance are acute. The health and future of U.S. democracy is of deep concern around the world and here at home, including to both Republicans and Democrats. There is a shared view across both major political parties that democracy is the best form of government, with 67% of Americans agreeing with that statement according to an Economist/YouGov poll from shortly before the 2024 election.⁹

However, according to a New York Times/Siena poll, 76% of Americans also agreed that “U.S. democracy is currently under threat.” (That included 76% of Democrats, 79% of Republicans, and 74% of Independents).¹⁰

However, Democrats and Republicans have divergent opinions on what the threat to American democracy is. Before Kamala Harris entered the 2024 presidential race, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) American Values survey found 91% of Democrats believed the reelection of Donald Trump would pose “a threat to American democracy and way of life” while 86% of Republicans believed the same about the reelection of Joe Biden.¹¹ These divisions and their impact are magnified by increased levels of support for autocratic tactics in the U.S.¹²

Despite deep political divisions across the U.S. and concerns about the nation’s democratic health, it is not a fait accompli that America will join the axis of illiberal nations. There is an opportunity and an imperative in 2025 and beyond for Americans, both governmental and nongovernmental actors, to work together across the country to prevent democratic backsliding and advance good governance and democracy. Although we aim for these seven pillars to be relevant to democratic stakeholders internationally, we will illustrate them in this introduction in terms of the current moment in the U.S.

The seven pillars that follow are intended to be useful for a variety of purposes including as key benchmarks for how democracy is advancing or declining in the U.S. in 2025 and as a checklist for prioritizing the investment of financial, social, policy, and other resources in protecting American democracy. The refreshed Democracy Playbook that follows considers both the U.S. and global democracies, and these seven pillars are no less relevant in the global context.

Pillar 1: Protect Elections

Safe, free, and fair elections are the cornerstone of democracy and are integral to preventing and reversing autocracy. U.S. elections in recent years have seen a resurgence of efforts to restrict voter access and create real or perceived obstacles and threats to electoral integrity. The 2020 post-election period was characterized by a flood of disinformation and assaults led by Donald Trump on the legitimate outcome of the election, culminating in the events of Jan. 6, 2021.¹³ Acts of intimidation continued during the 2024 general election cycle, when Americans faced numerous barriers and threats, including at least 67 bomb threats at polling stations on Election Day, disinformation and misinformation, and a mushrooming number of baseless election lawsuits, restrictive voting laws, voter suppression, and election denial.¹⁴

Going forward, pro-democracy coalitions and actors must not waver in ensuring the U.S.’ tradition of safe, secure, free, and transparent elections by maintaining and strengthening systems and institutions that protect and prioritize election processes and voter access at all levels including in the pre-and post-election periods. Even if federal action is unlikely to address these threats and challenges in the immediate period ahead, state and local governments, civil society, and the media can continue and double down on their ongoing efforts.

U.S. democracy actors must leave no stone unturned and look internationally at best practices, policies, and structures to shore up and improve threatened elections and protect voters.¹⁵

This effort in 2025 and beyond to ensure election integrity should include a committed private sector, including leading technology, media, and social media companies, collaborating closely with civil society, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government, and others to ensure election integrity and security.¹⁶ To take just one example, encouraging initiatives were launched in 2024, like the Tech Accord to Combat Deceptive Use of AI in 2024 Elections, which included U.S. tech companies agreeing to prevent deceptive artificial intelligence (AI) content from interfering with global elections and increasing trust in the information ecosystem.¹⁷

A thorough assessment of this and other initiatives in 2025 will be critical to fully understand the impact of these measures and to what extent stronger government oversight is needed as one piece of the much larger puzzle.

Pillar 2: Defend Rule of Law

While winning elections and governing are critical to a functioning democracy, so too is the bedrock of the constitutional institutions that protect the rights of all and ensure that the peaceful transition of power remains intact. Experts assess that rule of law is under threat in the U.S. as never before in modern times.¹⁸ Here, the U.S. is following a trend that we are seeing globally, with democracies and human rights increasingly threatened by empowered authoritarians. These autocratic actors often work to escape from the constraints of rule of law institutions such as courts, legislatures, and elections, or other power centers protected by the rule of law such as media and civil society.¹⁹

Federal, state, and local actors must use all available levers to reaffirm existing structures of judicial independence, rule of law, and the Constitution. Critical checks and balances and citizen trust in government weaken when courts and prosecutors do not adhere to mechanisms for transparency and accountability, and when elected officials prioritize personal vendettas or political gain over public good. Shirking binding ethical codes of conduct (including in the executive branch and at the U.S. Supreme Court) and allowing prosecutors to face political influence erode public confidence in them and in the judiciary that oversees them.²⁰

The decay of democratic norms, such as the weaponization of government and efforts to capture the judiciary, must also be vigorously contested by all actors, including vocal and organized condemnation by civil society and independent media.²¹ We must also vigorously oppose the political violence that has emerged in our politics. Jan. 6, 2021, represented a profoundly concerning example of that phenomenon in the U.S. This is compounded by Donald Trump’s threat to pardon Jan. 6 defendants, potentially strengthening militia movements.²² Threats to the judiciary have also been on the rise, as Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John Roberts highlighted in his 2024 end-of-year report.²³ Chief Justice Roberts identified four areas of concern: “(1) violence, (2) intimidation, (3) disinformation, and (4) threats to defy lawfully entered judgments.”²⁴ Insisting on the operation of the rule of law, with all its flaws, is critical to deterring and preventing illiberal influence.

Pillar 3: Fight Corruption

In order to retain trust in the democratic system, and democracy itself, it is essential to combat corruption.

Americans have deep concerns about corruption at all levels of government.²⁵ Corrupt officials, including most autocrats, abuse publicly entrusted power to enrich themselves and their proxies.

Actors at all levels and across all sectors must insist on government transparency, ethics, and accountability and use every tool available to push against corrupt practices. The fight against allegations of corruption, however, should not be weaponized based on political motivation or selective enforcement. National, state, and local pro-democracy actors must continue to push for a common set of anti-corruption standards, regulate the role of money in politics, and pledge to protect whistleblowers, media, and civil society actors combating illicit behavior. For example, pro-democracy actors must insist that the new administration fully implement and not weaken the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, and the Global Magnitsky Act.

Whatever may transpire at the federal level in 2025, state and local actors still have many available avenues for legal or voluntary regulation. That should include seeking jurisdictional regulation of money in politics, whether through the creation of mechanisms such as public financing of pro-democracy candidates for office, disclosure requirements for donations, and/or limits on campaign donation amounts. Campaigns must also play a role in self-regulation by additionally agreeing to a common set of ethics and anti-corruption standards.²⁶

Pillar 4: Reinforce Civic and Media Space

History and social science have repeatedly demonstrated that democratic governance and institutions are more likely to be protected, preserved, and strengthened when buttressed by big tent coalitions.²⁷ This includes diverse democracy alliances that include a wide range of civil society, state actors, political opposition, labor unions, the private sector, and members of the independent media.

Democracy alliances globally are increasingly threatened. Singling out activists and entities, like NGOs and independent media—through foreign agent laws or terrorist-sponsor labels—is central to the autocratic playbook.²⁸ For example, U.S. democracy actors now see challenges reminiscent of the ones faced by civil society and other pro-democracy advocates, including in Hungary, China, and Russia,²⁹ as well as globally. This could include the passage in 2025 of the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act—a similar type of repressive law we see wielded by autocrats and governments in backsliding states to shut down NGOs, including advocacy organizations, think tanks, and others.³⁰

A key difference in the democratic backsliding of Hungary and Poland is the resilience of independent media.³¹ In Hungary, Orbán and his allies have largely captured independent media and have targeted civil society,³² and critics have faced pressure and attacks from the government and its allies.³³ In Poland, despite efforts to stifle opposition,³⁴ independent media survived, largely due to support from external pro-democracy actors, like the U.S., and independent media companies. In the U.S., it remains to be seen whether mainstream media will retain its historic independence, with some corporate owners showing worrying signs of anticipatory obedience.³⁵ Meanwhile, a host of innovative new media platforms are springing up and growing, with voices loudly supporting democracy.³⁶

Aspiring autocrats are increasingly targeting independent media, including via frivolous libel and other legal actions.³⁷ They are also taking advantage of technological advances such as AI and social media to promote disinformation.³⁸ This impacts traditional media and journalism writ large by crowding out the truth. It is exacerbated by news deserts, which are rapidly growing in the United States.³⁹ These problematic trends impacting free media are taking place in an ever more dangerous environment for journalists. In the U.S., attacks on journalists increased by more than 50% from 2023 to 2024.⁴⁰ There are legitimate concerns that this climate for journalists could worsen in 2025 and beyond.⁴¹

These growing efforts to close civic space and weaken independent journalism must be vigorously resisted by civil society, media, and political opposition. Non-state actors should be prepared to surge financial and other support to targeted entities, organize against government actions that seek to wrongly target dissent, and endorse laws that promote protections of individuals from political attacks.⁴² There must also be an effort to address the proliferation of false claims both online and by mainstream media outlets, which affected how voters viewed each candidate in the November 2024 election and which millions of Americans spread knowingly.⁴³ (The importance of countering disinformation is further discussed in Pillar 6 below.)

Pillar 5: Protect Pluralistic Governance

In a democracy, elected and appointed officials should serve the public interest and that of democracy as a whole—and not political partisanship or personal grudges. That is an increasingly difficult task in an era of intensified polarization.⁴⁴ In addition to modeling responsible behavior, political leaders at local, state, and national levels must swiftly and firmly oppose anti-democratic sentiments from their peers, even when those views are within legal protections. No matter their political affiliation, leaders must strongly challenge attempts to suppress dissenting voices or undermine freedoms of assembly, press, and speech.⁴⁵ Civil society actors, citizens, and other stakeholders must make every effort to depolarize politics and create space for common ground and solutions. Local government models for overcoming political differences and solving local issues serve as a positive model for progress.⁴⁶

All democratic actors are charged with seeking respectful public discourse on critical issues while resisting slides toward toxic identity politics.⁴⁷ As Karl Popper laid out in “The Open Society and its Enemies,” there must be no tolerance of views that deny basic human rights to certain groups, while still engaging in legitimate debate. This is the so-called “paradox of intolerance.”⁴⁸ The disinformation and hatred toward Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, during the 2024 presidential campaign is one of many examples that highlight toxicity in politics that is corrosive and harmful. The military, law enforcement, and other arms of government must continue recognizing the threat from extremist ideologies, resist instruction that aligns with those views, and implement programs that train law enforcement—from recruitment to return to civilian life—on these dangers.⁴⁹

An essential element of good governance in the U.S. and other democracies is healthy civilian-military relations, with the firm understanding that civilian control of the military is the rule. However, such civilian control must never transgress constitutional order. There are many “lawful but awful” orders of politicization and autocratization that do not extend to the point of illegal orders but, nonetheless, break vital constitutional norms.⁵⁰ In the U.S., experts have raised concerns about the looming possibility of the misuse of the military in domestic settings.⁵¹

Pillar 6: Counter Disinformation

In democracies, new forms of media and quickly evolving technologies, including social media and generative AI, are impacting the information space, electoral integrity, and democracy by driving the spread of misinformation and disinformation, as we saw in the year of elections globally.⁵² Social media’s ability to amplify disinformation and manipulate narratives has been exploited by authoritarians to flood the information space with anti-democratic propaganda. The increasing prevalence of AI could worsen the flow of false content online (traditional media, which we discuss in Pillar 4 above, also has a central role to play in combating disinformation, but there have been worrying signs that some corporate owners are abdicating this role). Conversely, AI can also strengthen democracy, and the rapid advancement of tech has the potential to strengthen systems of democratic governance.⁵³

Although there has been some action on the federal level to place guardrails around new media and emerging technologies, it is uncertain how next steps will evolve—and whether progress will continue.⁵⁴ Federal action may be uncertain, but pro-democracy proponents at the state level should consider wielding their considerable regulatory power to minimize the destabilizing effects of new and evolving technologies while discovering ways of leveraging them to democratize public spaces.⁵⁵ They may find partners in allied regulators such as the EU, Brazil,⁵⁶ and globally in 2025.⁵⁷ While government legislation and regulation try to keep pace with innovation, the private sector must counter deteriorating content moderation policies and adopt industry standards that incorporate transparency and accountability.⁵⁸

Pillar 7: Make Democracy Deliver

Pro-democracy actors must strengthen their commitment to supporting policies at the national, state, and local levels of inclusive growth that tackle economic inequality and improve well-being and opportunity across all demographic lines, including race, class, and geography. In the U.S., this includes bolstering labor unions that are increasingly supported by the American public and critical to the health of our democracy and to addressing inequality.⁵⁹ The prioritization of these policy objectives—that aim to strengthen democracies so they equitably deliver for working families and everyone—must be acted on and powerfully communicated to all. The failure of democratic elites to address widening income gaps and kitchen table frustrations must be fixed, learning lessons from effective pro-democracy officials (particularly at the state and local level).

In the U.S. and globally, democracy still offers the greatest opportunity for economic progress, particularly in marginalized communities. Democracy is a strong driver of a healthy economy, with economists finding that democratization causes about a 20% boost in GDP per capita.⁶⁰ These policies and their communication should seek to address the unique needs of each geographic region by elevating existing community assets and collaborations that bolster local economies. Domestic actors can find expertise and collaboration across the U.S. and with their international peers to seek to form a more unified and coherent effort. That must include efforts to address the large-scale ramifications of climate change, including increases in natural disaster recovery, climate refugees, and infrastructure protection policies.

In advance of the inauguration of a new U.S. president, it is not an exaggeration to say that all of these seven pillars are under stress. The advance of illiberalism and autocracy here are part of a two-decade global trend. We are barreling toward a dangerous path with serious repercussions for democracy, freedoms, and security in America—and around the world.

With all our imperfections, the United States historically has been a leader on democratic initiatives. But with democracy’s erosion here, at least at the federal level, it is now more critical than ever to learn lessons from elsewhere and to lean on experts, wherever they may be. For that reason, and also to be of use to democracies everywhere, this Playbook extensively surveys international considerations, examples, and lessons. Subnational settings are included. In many places, those are rich sources for institutions that support or study democracy—including in the U.S. at the state and local levels.

We know that Americans do not want to live in a country where their freedoms are restricted. They have the agency, courage, and tools at their disposal to act together at all levels, to protect democracy, norms, and values and outright reject illiberalism. When utilized by democratic stakeholders, the actions we describe in our seven pillars and in the remainder of this updated Playbook show that it is possible to defend liberal democracies. We have seen this in recent years in places as diverse as Poland, Brazil, Moldova, and the Czech Republic, where the levers of power were held by illiberal actors, and democratic coalitions have gained or have come back to power.

It is also worth noting that there were significant reversals for autocracies in 2024, and not only for democracy. For example, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria and the end of Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule in Bangladesh by student-led protests open the door to political reform and a break from corrupt autocratic rule. The consequential changes in the Middle East, including severe blows to Hezbollah and Hamas and the fall of the Assad regime, represent a profound setback for Iran and its autocratic ally Russia.⁶¹ We also saw democracy progress following elections in Senegal and Guatemala and democratic and civil society resilience in Taiwan—despite a massive Chinese disinformation campaign to disrupt the Taiwanese presidential electoral outcome. If it may be said that democracy is under stress globally, so too are autocracy and illiberal actors and their proxies.

Each section of the Playbook should be read in conjunction with the seven pillars set out in this introduction. We begin each subsection with a summary of its contents. We conclude each subsection with recommendations for further reading on the corresponding topic. The material that follows in the body of the Playbook is not organized in seven pillars because many of the sections are crosscutting or move between domestic and international settings. But to aid the reader and to collate with the introduction, the editors mark in the margins throughout which pillar applies to particular text.

In Section One of the Playbook, we provide a set of insights, drawn from the U.S. and global contexts, to help inform and strengthen the strategies of domestic democratic actors such as:

• The incumbent political establishment;
• The political opposition;
• Civil society and independent media; and
• Private enterprise—including social media enterprises—and ordinary citizens.

Section Two discusses the role of international actors, institutions, and organizations in supporting pro-democracy forces, empowering local actors, and advancing democratic reforms. This report highlights efforts including:

• Partnering with domestic NGOs;
• Assisting civil resistance and nonviolent movements;
• Countering disinformation campaigns; and
• Providing foreign government and institutional support.

Relevant domestic and international actors include additional groups such as experts and professional associations, state and local government leaders, cultural and educational institutions and associations, and many more.

Despite the domestic democracy crisis in the U.S., the editors—as in the prior editions of this Playbook—give equal time to the international setting. The U.S. as the standard-bearer for democracy globally should continue to unabashedly embrace a bipartisan foreign policy based on relations with fellow democracies, not illiberal demagogues. The support of our G7 allies, NATO, and frontline democracies like Ukraine and Taiwan is not only vital to democracy globally but also for the safety, security, and prosperity of the U.S. itself. U.S. alignment with autocrats could likely cause devastating consequences for democracy. But we must face the reality that such a realignment may occur. Accordingly, we, among other things, document U.S. democracy promotion efforts and discuss how other governments and nongovernmental actors can carry the torch forward if it becomes necessary.

To be clear, no single pillar or collection of strategies is a guaranteed solution to the illiberal challenges at hand in the U.S. and globally, nor is it a foolproof response to present opportunities for democratic advancement.⁶² Contextual factors impact challenges and powerfully shape the outcomes of particular pro-democracy strategies and tactics.⁶³ This Playbook seeks to inform actors designing and implementing comprehensive strategies to safeguard democracy. We hope that stakeholders will find this update of the Playbook a useful guide to the scholarship and the relevant history as they contest and resist the illiberal toolkit—and employ the democratic one.

Download the full report here