The Authoritarian Threat: Preparing for the Repression of U.S. Philanthropy & Civil Society examines the existing and emerging risks to U.S. philanthropy and civil society following the recent election. The report identifies threats from President-elect Trump, Congress, state actors, and other key stakeholders, highlighting the increasingly restricted operating environment that civil society organizations are likely to experience under the incoming administration. It also offers practical recommendations for funders and nonprofit organizations to mitigate these risks and protect their work in this uncertain environment.

Read the full report here.

In this new report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld examines how over the past two decades, dozens of governments have used regulations, laws, and vilifying narratives to restrict the ability of civil society organizations to act and speak. Now, a similar set of tactics is being rolled out in the United States. What should philanthropists and organizations expect, and what can be done?

From the report:

CLOSING SPACE INTERNATIONALLY

“The absence of civic space was a hallmark of Cold War totalitarianism. There was the individual, and there was the government; any attempt to organize regular people to act or speak publicly in even innocuous ways—such as a birdwatching league, a home church, or a small arts magazine—had to be monitored and approved by the ruling party or crushed.

The blossoming of civil society across the former Soviet Union and many other once-closed societies was among the strongest signals that the 1990s wave of democracy was not only toppling authoritarian regimes but also growing roots. Organizations, interest groups, religious congregations, open media, and the free exchange of ideas helped people find their voices, locate their communities, and push their governments and societies to do things that they cared about.

Then, in the mid-2000s, democracy started to recede globally. And the walls started to close in on civil society.”

Read the full report here>>

In this brief update of the January 2023 report, we summarize how the trends we observed have become even more worrying. With implications for every funder's work, authoritarian populists have strengthened their hold on government power and are using it to restrict freedoms across a wide swathe of American life. Regardless of the programs or issue areas you fund, whether you're socially conservative or progressive, we hope the report and update will act as a guide to the challenges ahead and encourage greater collaboration across programmatic and institutional lines in defense of liberal democracy.Rising authoritarianism in the U.S. has the potential to profoundly damage civil society and the philanthropy that supports it, damage that itself has the potential to further accelerate autocratic rule.

What Happens if It Happens Here? U.S. Philanthropy, Civil Society, and the Authoritarian Threat

The size, strength, and diversity of American philanthropy and civil society are unique in the world. These institutions have a key role to play in first stopping and then reversing the trend of democratic backsliding.

Authoritarians know this, which is why they have set their sights on civil society organizations and their funders. Groups working to ensure free and fair elections, reform police practices, or defend the rights of Muslim, Jewish, or LGBTQ Americans are among those contending with official harassment and threats of violence encouraged by politicians and rightwing media. Prominent funders have been targeted as enemies of “real Americans” and threatened with asset seizure. These examples, as well as the experiences of people in U.S. states and foreign countries undergoing democratic decline, tell us what might be coming. The warnings are all around us.

Changing the nation’s trajectory for the long term will involve work for which philanthropy and civil society are uniquely suited: helping Americans bridge divides and come together to build a fully functioning system of self-government. Doing so will demand taking on illiberalism on both left and right. In the near-term, however, philanthropy will have to contend with growing authoritarian factions on the right that are using government power, and even political violence, to gain and maintain control – and that threaten philanthropy and civil society itself. The danger comes from those who are no longer interested in the give and take of policy making, of negotiation and compromise, and who reject one of the key principles that make democracy work: the willingness to lose to the other side.

READ THE UPDATE>

READ THE ORIGINAL REPORT>

Since June 16, 2015, the day that Donald Trump descended an escalator in Trump Tower and announced his run for the presidency, the American body politic has struggled to figure out how to treat him, his rhetoric, and the threat he poses to our system of government. A similar pattern plays out repeatedly: Trump makes a seemingly outlandish promise that upends conventional understandings of politics. Then, those who help Americans make sense of current events — the media, other politicians, pundits, and influencers — dismiss, distort, or deny the very promise Trump has made. And few then know quite what to make of it all or how to respond — a state of confusion that has enabled Trump to shatter democratic norms in previously inconceivable ways.

We now have more than eight years of experience with this phenomenon and a full presidential term as a track record proving that Trump’s pledges should be taken both seriously and literally. He has, for the most part, sought to do the extreme things that were dismissed as mere rhetoric when first promised, from enacting a “Muslim ban” to refusing to accept the results of an election. And yet, here we are again, with Trump making even more extreme promises to “terminate” the Constitution, seek “retribution” against political opponents, and be a “dictator” (just on day one), only to see people unsure what to make of or how to respond to these threats.

This report aims to alter these dynamics by clearly showing how Trump would follow through on his most extreme anti-democratic pledges for a second term and then offering expert recommendations for how to mitigate that danger. 

READ MORE>