If Donald Trump wins the U.S. presidential election on November 5 this year, he will be more prepared than in 2016, when he first secured the White House, to manipulate state institutions to persecute rivals, silence critics, undermine civil liberties, and incite political violence, among other authoritarian actions. This was the stark warning delivered by Mr. Steven Levitsky, an American political scientist, during his lecture \u201cWhy Has Democracy Reached a Breaking Point in the United States?\u201d The event marked the 20th anniversary of the Funda\u00e7\u00e3o Fernando Henrique Cardoso at its headquarters in downtown S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnlike in Brazil, institutions in the United States failed to hold the former president accountable for his attacks on democracy, and now Trump is running for the White House again, with a strong chance of winning. In 2016, he didn\u2019t understand how the state functioned; he had no clear plan. This time, the Republican candidate has been very explicit about his intentions if he returns to office: he has declared that he will staff the administration with loyalists, use the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute his political opponents, leverage the state to punish media critics, and deploy the military to suppress protests. This is one of the most overtly authoritarian political campaigns I\u2019ve ever witnessed. Not even Ch\u00e1vez, Erdogan, or Orb\u00e1n made such promises,\u201d said Mr. Levitsky, co-author of the bestselling book How Democracies Die<\/em> (2018), written with Daniel Ziblatt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Harvard professor, while Trump may not succeed in turning the United States into a dictatorship, a win would plunge the country into a dangerous and turbulent period. \u201cAlthough institutions have not acted to block Trump\u2019s candidacy, the system of checks and balances remains resilient. The fact that we are a federation, with state governments holding significant independence, will prevent Trump from fully consolidating a dictatorship. However, he will likely violate basic civil liberties, repress protests, and encourage political violence, potentially by paramilitary groups, which is extremely dangerous,\u201d Mr. Levitsky cautioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n