DiscoverThe Political Scene | The New YorkerHow Bad Is It?: Andrew Marantz on the Health of Our Democracy
How Bad Is It?: Andrew Marantz on the Health of Our Democracy

How Bad Is It?: Andrew Marantz on the Health of Our Democracy

Update: 2025-05-011
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In a new recurring series on The Political Scene, the staff writer Andrew Marantz joins Tyler Foggatt to assess the status of American democracy. How does one distinguish—in the blizzard of federal workforce cuts, deportations, and executive orders that have defined the first hundred days of Donald Trump’s second term—actions that are offensive to some, but fundamentally within the power of the executive, from moves which threaten the integrity of our system of government? Marantz applies the lens of Viktor Orbán’s Hungary to analyze where we may be in a potential slide toward autocracy, exploring ways in which Trump has even gone beyond the “Orbán playbook.” Marantz and Foggatt also discuss what it would take to reverse democratic backsliding.


This week’s reading:



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How Bad Is It?: Andrew Marantz on the Health of Our Democracy

How Bad Is It?: Andrew Marantz on the Health of Our Democracy

The New Yorker