Subverting Democracy: A Comparative Study of Authoritarian Ascents to Power for Law and Graduate-Level Courses
The materials below were created for a course exploring the ethical challenges lawyers face in various countries undergoing transitions toward authoritarianism across different historical periods
The primer and the initial installment of the extended discussion accompanying this post were developed with the assistance of publicly available artificial intelligence platforms—including ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini—as part of the design of a law school course that offers a comparative perspective on the ethical and moral challenges lawyers face in societies undergoing authoritarian transformation. To provide historical and institutional context, the course examines how violence and intimidation directed at judges, legislators, government officials, and other institutional checks have been systematically employed by fascist and right-wing extremist movements over the past century. This comparative framework is intended as a heuristic device to help students better understand and critically evaluate the Trump Administration’s unlawful and destabilizing efforts to consolidate power.
My decision to share these materials on Substack was inspired by a recent Washington Post article titled “Fearing Trump, academics worldwide issue anti‑fascist manifesto” (June 13, 2025). The piece reports on an open letter signed by more than 400 scholars—including approximately 30 Nobel laureates—warning of authoritarian trends that echo the rise of Mussolini and other fascist movements in 1920s Europe. [Washington Post, June 13, 2025, washingtonpost.com.] I’ll provide the full extended discussion to subscribers individually upon request.
🔑 Key Highlights from the Manifesto Article
Historic parallel: The letter was explicitly modeled on Italy’s 1925 "Anti-Fascist Intellectuals’ Manifesto," drawing direct comparisons to modern threats against democratic institutions.
Global concern: Signatories flagged worrying trends such as political interference in media, judicial systems, and academic autonomy—not just in the U.S., but globally across Hungary, Brazil, Israel, and Russia
Impelling current events: The release was timed to coincide with President Trump’s planned military-style parade on his 79th birthday and aligned with recent federal investigations targeting universities.
Scholarly voices: Figures like Timothy Snyder (snyder.substack.com) and Ruth Ben‑Ghiat (lucid.substack.com) emphasize that while today's situation isn't identical to 1930s fascism, it is "explicable when we have clear references to the past."
📌 Broader Context & Related Coverage
Academic autonomy under pressure: In an opinion piece on June 2, 2025, Michael Ignatieff warned of an assault on higher education akin to Viktor Orbán’s attack on Central European University—situations historically unheard of since the 1930s washingtonpost.com.
Hannah Arendt revisited: A June 13 Washington Post opinion invokes Hannah Arendt to underscore contemporary risks, cautioning against normalized militarism and anti‑media rhetoric echoing totalitarian playbooks washingtonpost.com+1washingtonpost.com+1.
📝 Revised Summary of the June 13 Manifesto Article
In the June 13, 2025 article, The Washington Post spotlighted a revival of Italy’s 1925 anti‑fascist declaration by modern scholars, timed to coincide with symbols of authoritarian pageantry in Washington. The letter, signed by over 400 academics globally, including Nobel laureates, warns that democratic erosion—especially the politicization of courts, media, and universities—is presenting unsettling resonances with Europe’s interwar years. Importantly, it explicitly “…condemns modern attacks on democratic norms, press freedom, and academia,” and, without naming individuals, draws chilling historical parallels with Mussolini-era authoritarianism washingtonpost.com.
🔍 Why This Matters
Anchored in history: By evoking the 1925 manifesto, scholars remind us that democratic backsliding didn’t appear overnight—it’s a process visible in hindsight and avoidable only with vigilance.
Institutional warning lights: The focus on media, courts, and universities aligns with historical early signals of democratic decay—much like what scholars tracked in 1930s Europe.
Global call to action: This initiative transcends national boundaries, involving signatories from Europe, North America, Australia, and beyond—echoing the internationalist spirit of the original 1925 letter.
Immediately below is a very basic overview summary, followed by a detailed research tool for used for designing an graduate seminar.
Thanks for reading The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
I. Primer
Italy – Mussolini and Squadrismo
Paramilitary violence (Squadrismo/Blackshirts) was central: beginning in 1919, squads systematically beat, intimidated, and murdered socialists, unionists, judges, and local officials to destabilize democratic order .
1922 Turin Massacre: Over December 18–20, fascist squads killed 11–24 labor movement members, including possible attacks on sympathetic officials, to crush resistance .
Once Mussolini consolidated power via the March on Rome, paramilitaries remained tools—despite some attempts to regulate them—helping enforce the regime’s authoritarian control .
Germany – Nazi Regime
Weimar-era judicial bias favored Nazis; prominent leaders (e.g. Hitler after the Beer Hall Putsch) escaped punishment .
Once in power, the Nazis purged judges who ruled for leftists or Jews, installed ideological judges, and created the Volksgerichtshof, which carried out politically motivated prosecutions and executions.
The SA/SS actively intimidated, beat, kidnapped, and murdered opposition legislators and officials, most famously during events like the Reichstag Fire arrests, the Night of the Long Knives, and routine street violence.
Spain – Franco’s “White Terror”
After the Civil War, Franco’s forces assassinated or imprisoned judges, legislators, teachers, and civil servants aligned with the Republic. Tens of thousands were killed or "disappeared" in retribution
Military tribunals expelled judicial and legislative independence, molding all state functions into authoritarian instruments of the regime.
Argentina – Military Junta & Dirty War
1976–83 Dirty War: Judges, legislators, journalists, human rights activists were kidnapped, "disappeared," tortured, and killed.
The judiciary was coerced into complicity or diminished in authority; Congress was dissolved under martial law. Some judges who resisted were abducted or assassinated .
Peru – Fujimori’s 1992 “Self‑Coup” (Fujimorazo)
President Alberto Fujimori dissolved Congress and the judiciary by ordering military forces to occupy government buildings with tanks .
Opposition legislators, judges, and journalists were arrested or intimidated. A state of emergency suspended constitutional protections until a compliant new Congress and constitution were installed .
France – Interwar Far‑Right Leagues
In the 6 February 1934 crisis, far-right paramilitary leagues (Franistes, Action Française, Croix-de-Feu) violently stormed toward the National Assembly, clashing with police and protesting corruption. The rally forced government resignation and marked a violent attack on legislative authority .
1. Destroying Legal and Political Constraints: Attacking judges and legislators weakens checks on executive power.
2. Intimidation and Precedent: Public violence chills dissent among officials and civil servants.
3. Creating “Order” Narrative: Appearing as enforcers of national unity or security, extremists justify ending democratic or legal norms.
4. Institutional Capture: Replacing independent actors with loyalists consolidates control.
Continued Threat – Now and Future
Post-WWII, many regimes retained authoritarian fascist traits through military dictatorships and populist coups.
Today, scholars describe a “fascist playbook” involving judicial attacks, paramilitary intimidation, legislative erosion, and state capture as recurring strategies .
Recent U.S. concerns echo earlier patterns: threats to judges, election officials, undermining courts—reminding us: violence or coercion against state institutions remains an alarm bell for democratic backsliding .
II. Detailed research tool for used for designing a graduate seminar on:
The Authoritarian Playbook: Historical Patterns of Institutional Subversion by Extremist Movements and Contemporary Democratic Threats
Introduction
This report undertakes a comprehensive analysis of historical strategies employed by fascist and right-wing extremist movements to dismantle democratic institutions. The focus is on their systematic targeting of the judiciary, legislature, and government officials, as well as the broader system of checks and balances. The enduring relevance of these historical patterns of power consolidation through violence and institutional capture remains acutely pertinent, offering crucial insights into contemporary challenges to democratic governance, often described through the lens of an "authoritarian playbook".
The objective of this analysis is to provide a comparative examination of institutional subversion across various historical contexts—Italy, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Peru, and France—and to extract critical lessons for understanding and confronting modern democratic backsliding. The examination moves beyond mere description to uncover underlying trends, causal relationships, and broader implications. A central understanding emerging from this historical review is the cyclical nature of authoritarian tactics. Scholars consistently describe a "fascist playbook" involving judicial attacks, paramilitary intimidation, legislative erosion, and state capture as recurring strategies. The repetition of these tactics across different historical periods and geographies suggests that these are not isolated incidents but rather a set of effective, transferable strategies for seizing and maintaining power. This continuity implies a need to understand these patterns not just as historical curiosities but as active, evolving threats. Recognizing this cyclicality is crucial for the early detection and prevention of democratic erosion in modern contexts.
I. Historical Case Studies: Violence and Subversion Against Democratic Institutions
This section delves into specific historical examples, demonstrating the varied yet consistent methods employed by extremist movements to undermine democratic structures. Each case highlights the targets, tactics, and immediate consequences of these actions.
A. Italy: Mussolini, Squadrismo, and the Erosion of Liberal Democracy
The rise of Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime in Italy provides a foundational case study in the systematic subversion of democratic institutions. A core element of this process was the widespread use of paramilitary violence, known as Squadrismo.
Beginning in 1919, Fascist squads, or Blackshirts, systematically engaged in extreme violence, including beatings, intimidation, and murders. Their primary targets were socialists, unionists, judges, and local officials, with the explicit aim of destabilizing the existing democratic order. This violence was not random but pervasive, designed to instill terror, fear, and despair within local communities, effectively destroying social cohesion and scattering families. The brutal assaults and destruction of property by these Fascist paramilitary units, often unopposed by local government authorities, pushed Italy to the brink of civil war in the early 1920s. This systematic campaign aimed to break the authority and morale of internal security forces, a goal often facilitated by the acquiescence or outright connivance of peripheral state authorities and even elements within the judiciary. The police's failure to effectively counter Mussolini's movement, attributed to institutional defects, poor treatment, and a lack of loyalty to the liberal parliamentary system, further highlights how state weakness inadvertently facilitated this violence. This demonstrates that violence served as a foundational tool for political destabilization. The widespread, systematic violence created a climate of fear and chaos, which in turn delegitimized the existing democratic order and made the population more amenable to a strongman promising "order." This directly facilitated Mussolini's ascent by breaking down state authority and public morale, illustrating how violence can be a precondition for political takeover, not merely a consequence.
A particularly stark example of this strategic violence was the 1922 Turin Massacre. From December 18-20, 1922, fascist squads killed between 11 and 24 labor movement members, with possible attacks on sympathetic officials, all in an effort to crush resistance. Specific targets included communists, atheists, secularists, socialists, and members of the local labor movement, such as the anarchist Pietro Ferrero and the communist councillor Carlo Berruti. This event was not a spontaneous outburst but involved significant planning and a high degree of toleration by both the Turinese and national Fascist leaderships, as well as local authorities. This understanding challenges interpretations that portray Fascist violence as merely undisciplined actions without the approval of Mussolini or the Fascist leadership. The fact that Mussolini himself sought to "contain the violent excesses of local squadrismo" suggests a calculated management of violence rather than a complete disavowal. This reveals a common authoritarian tactic: orchestrating or tolerating violence while maintaining a public facade of deniability or portraying it as an uncontrollable popular uprising. This approach allows such movements to reap the benefits of chaos—destabilization and intimidation—without taking direct responsibility, thereby justifying subsequent "order-restoring" measures.
Following the March on Rome in October 1922, even as Mussolini consolidated power, paramilitary forces remained instrumental in enforcing authoritarian control, despite some nominal attempts to regulate them. Mussolini's dictatorship solidified through a series of restrictive laws, the outlawing of political parties, and the establishment of a secret police force, the OVRA, designed to suppress dissent. A pivotal moment in this consolidation was the 1924 assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, a prominent Socialist critic who had meticulously documented widespread Fascist election fraud and violence. This murder sparked widespread public protest and calls for Mussolini's resignation. Initially, Mussolini appeared paralyzed by the backlash, but he ultimately responded to demands from Fascist militants for a "second wave" of violence. In a dramatic speech on January 3, 1925, Mussolini publicly assumed "complete responsibility" for the Fascist violence, including Matteotti's murder, effectively marking the beginning of his overt dictatorship. This declaration was swiftly followed by a renewed wave of squadristi violence, which destroyed opposition presses and employed intimidation and physical assaults to silence protest. The fragmented anti-Fascist opposition offered little effective resistance.
Further cementing his authoritarian rule, Mussolini's government passed a series of "Exceptional Decrees" between 1925 and 1927, particularly after several unsuccessful assassination attempts against him. These decrees formally outlawed all political parties, banned anti-Fascist organizations and publications, canceled passports, stripped parliamentary immunity from opposition deputies, and eliminated local elected governments, replacing them with state-appointed administrators. Crucially, these exceptional decrees also established the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State, a military court that operated outside normal judicial processes. This tribunal facilitated the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of over 5,000 government opponents and reintroduced the death penalty, which had been abolished in 1890. The purging of state bureaucracy and the courts ensured total government acquiescence to Mussolini's authority. This progression illustrates a critical transition from extra-legal violence to legalized repression. Initially, the violence by Squadristi was paramilitary and often operated outside official legal structures. However, after the March on Rome and especially following the Matteotti crisis, Mussolini strategically leveraged "restrictive laws" and "exceptional decrees" to formalize repression. The creation of the Special Tribunal for the Defense of the State transformed arbitrary violence into state-sanctioned "legal" processes, albeit ones that bypassed due process. This institutionalization of repression, including the reintroduction of the death penalty, allowed the regime to project its "coercive power deeply and diffusely into society". This demonstrates a common trajectory in authoritarian consolidation: once sufficient power is gained through extra-legal means, the regime then "legalizes" its repression to create a veneer of legitimacy and institutionalize control, making it harder for internal and external actors to challenge. This is a crucial aspect of what has been termed the "authoritarian legal playbook."
B. Germany: The Nazi Regime's Capture of the Judiciary and Legislature
The Nazi regime's ascent to power and subsequent consolidation in Germany involved a systematic dismantling of democratic institutions, with particular emphasis on capturing the judiciary and legislature. This process was facilitated by pre-existing vulnerabilities within the Weimar Republic.
During the Weimar era, the judiciary exhibited a discernible bias favoring nationalist and right-wing elements. Judges, many of whom were conservative nationalists whose careers began under the Kaiserreich, frequently imposed lighter sentences for right-wing political crimes while delivering harsher ones for left-wing offenses. A salient illustration of this bias is Adolf Hitler's lenient treatment following the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Despite being found guilty of high treason, Hitler received the minimum sentence of five years in prison and was released after only nine months, effectively utilizing his trial as a national platform for propaganda. The chief presiding judge, Georg Neithardt, had a documented history of leniency towards the right and afforded Hitler considerable latitude in court proceedings, reportedly even stating that former general Erich Ludendorff would be acquitted due to his perceived indispensability to Germany. The prosecution's apparent disinterest in pursuing the fullest extent of the law against Hitler also contributed to this outcome. This demonstrates that pre-existing institutional vulnerabilities can significantly facilitate the rise of authoritarian movements. The Weimar judiciary's ideological alignment with the old regime, rather than the Republic, meant that treason against the Republic was not viewed with the necessary severity. This judicial bias led to lenient sentences for right-wing extremists, which emboldened them and provided them with public platforms, ultimately weakening the democratic state's capacity to defend itself from internal threats. This illustrates how a seemingly "independent" institution can be compromised by ideological alignment.
Once in power, the Nazis swiftly moved to purge the judiciary and establish new, subservient institutions. In April 1933, judges who had ruled in favor of leftists or Jews were dismissed, with 850 out of 6,500 judges and prosecutors in Prussia alone being removed, approximately one-third of whom were Jewish. A new civil service law mandated that judicial officials "show at all times their willingness to defend and support the National Socialist state". Dissatisfied with "not guilty" verdicts in politically sensitive cases, such as the Supreme Court's Reichstag Fire Trial where the Nazi charge against Communists could not be sustained, Hitler ordered the creation of the
Volksgerichtshof (People's Court) in 1934. This new court was designed to carry out politically motivated prosecutions and executions, staffed with ideologically aligned judges. The People's Court rapidly became an instrument of mass terror, particularly after 1942 with the appointments of Otto Thierack as Reich Minister of Justice and Roland Freisler as its president. Death sentences dramatically increased from 72 between 1934 and 1939 to over 5,000 between 1941 and 1945. Thierack further solidified state control by issuing "letters to all judges" as official sentencing guidelines, compelling judges to decide cases according to the state's position under constant threat of removal. The observation that judges more ideologically committed to the Nazi Party were more likely to impose the death sentence confirms the profound politicization of the judiciary. This demonstrates a dual strategy of purge and the creation of parallel institutions. The Nazis did not merely replace judges; they also established a new court, the
Volksgerichtshof, indicating a two-pronged approach: purging existing institutions of disloyal elements and establishing parallel, ideologically controlled institutions to handle sensitive cases and ensure desired outcomes. This approach ensured that the "rule of law" became the "rule of the regime," making institutional resistance exceedingly difficult.
Alongside judicial capture, the Nazi regime employed direct physical terror through its paramilitary organizations. The SA (Sturmabteilung) and SS (Schutzstaffel) actively intimidated, beat, kidnapped, and murdered opposition legislators and officials. During the campaign leading up to the March 1933 Reichstag elections, SA and SS members were deputized as auxiliary police in much of Germany, using these new powers to attack, arrest, and kill communists. The Reichstag Fire on February 27, 1933, was opportunistically exploited by the Nazis to declare a state of emergency, which abolished civil liberties and enabled mass arrests, particularly of communists. Furthermore, SS troops were deployed to the makeshift Reichstag building to intimidate other political parties during the vote on the Enabling Act on March 23, 1933, which granted Hitler dictatorial powers. A significant internal purge, known as the "Night of the Long Knives," occurred on June 30, 1934. Hitler carried out a bloody elimination of SA leaders, including Ernst Röhm, and other rivals, with an estimated 150 to 200 victims. This event consolidated his power and transformed the SS into an independent organization directly loyal to him. The SS, responsible for most of these murders, was rewarded by becoming an independent Nazi organization , cementing its role as a key instrument of terror. This illustrates the critical interplay of legal manipulation and physical terror. The Reichstag Fire and subsequent emergency decrees provided a "legal" pretext for mass arrests and the suppression of civil liberties. Simultaneously, the SA and SS engaged in overt physical violence, intimidation, and murder. The "Night of the Long Knives," though an internal purge, sent a clear message to any potential opposition, both within and outside the party, through its sheer brutality. This combination of legalistic measures and overt physical terror created an environment where dissent was not only illegal but also physically dangerous. The "legal" actions provided a thin veneer of legitimacy, while the violence ensured compliance and eliminated resistance, demonstrating a highly effective, multi-faceted strategy for total control.
[Complete document will be made available upon request at no charge.]
Bibliography
Nino, Carlos Santiago. Radical Evil on Trial. Yale University Press, 1996.
Paxton, Robert O. The Anatomy of Fascism. Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
Payne, Stanley G. Fascism in Spain, 1923–1977. University of Wisconsin Press, 2000.
Snyder, Timothy. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. Tim Duggan Books, 2017.
MacMillan, Margaret. "The 1922 Turin Massacre (Strage di Torino): Working-Class Resistance and Conflicts within Fascism." Modern Italy 21, no. 1 (February 2016): 39–54.(https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-italy/article/1922-turin-massacre-strage-di-torino-working-class-resistance-and-conflicts-within-fascism/23C63F8A72DEC858B66851BEE04D2AE5)
Protect Democracy. "The Authoritarian Playbook." ProtectDemocracy.org, March 2024.(https://protectdemocracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-Authoritarian-Playbook-Updated.pdf)
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Turin Massacre 1922 historical accounts." en.wikipedia.org, December 18, 2022.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1922_Turin_massacre)
University of Cambridge. "Paramilitary violence and fascism: Imaginaries and practices of squadrismo, 1919–1925." Cambridge.org, 2019.(https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/ABFBA250CF47B328C76852572B74DCBF/S0960777319000390a.pdf/paramilitary-violence-and-fascism-imaginaries-and-practices-of-squadrismo-19191925.pdf)
University of Oxford. "Seeking Justice for Forgotten Victims of the Spanish Civil War." LSE.ac.uk, 2016.(https://www.lse.ac.uk/Research/research-impact-case-studies/seeking-justice-forgotten-victims-spanish-civil-war)
Description of Activities: This non-profit organization is dedicated to preventing the decline of democracy into authoritarianism. They work to defend free and fair elections, uphold the rule of law against authoritarian threats, combat disinformation, and foster a stronger democracy for future generations.
Description of Activities: As an independent watchdog organization, Freedom House is committed to the global expansion of freedom and democracy. They conduct research, analysis, and advocacy on political freedom, human rights, and the state of democracy worldwide, including specific reports on the persecution of judges and lawyers as part of a broader assault on the rule of law.
International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA)
Description of Activities: International IDEA is an intergovernmental organization that supports sustainable democracy globally. They provide policy-relevant knowledge, facilitate capacity development, engage in advocacy, and convene dialogues focused on areas such as electoral processes, constitution-building, democracy assessment, and political participation and representation.
American Bar Association (ABA) Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI)
Description of Activities: ABA ROLI works to promote justice, economic opportunity, and human dignity through the rule of law worldwide. They are involved in defending the rule of law, supporting an independent judiciary, and advocating against efforts to undermine courts and the legal profession.
Description of Activities: The UN, through various bodies like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), supports democracy by promoting human rights, development, peace, and security. Their activities include fostering good governance, monitoring elections, strengthening civil society, assisting in constitution drafting, and rebuilding independent judiciary systems in transitional democracies.
Description of Activities: This center at UC Berkeley is dedicated to the study of right-wing political movements, including historical fascism and contemporary anti-democratic phenomena, with scholars examining parallels between past and present threats to democratic institutions.
Harvard Kennedy School (Carr Center for Human Rights Policy)
Description of Activities: The Carr Center focuses on human rights policy, including research and commentary on the challenges to democracy posed by authoritarian populism and the erosion of democratic norms.
Description of Activities: Published by the National Endowment for Democracy, this leading academic journal provides analysis and discussion on the progress and challenges of democracy worldwide. It frequently features articles on democratic backsliding, authoritarian tactics, and the resilience of democratic institutions.
Description of Activities: The Inquiry Journal at UNH publishes undergraduate research, including academic analyses of historical and contemporary political phenomena such as fascism, providing insights into its theoretical, philosophical, and political-legal contexts.
Thanks for reading The past is the present, isn't it? It's the future, too! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
