Rebuilding Democracy and the Rule of Law in the United States After Trump: Reflections on Bruce Ackerman
The article analyzes Bruce Ackerman’s lecture at the UNAM Law Faculty on rebuilding American democracy after Trump. It argues that Donald Trump’s presidency illustrates several dangers Ackerman identified in The Decline and Fall of the American Republic, including the growing concentration of presidential power, plebiscitary leadership, politics driven by emotional appeals, and the expansive use of emergency powers. To address these risks, Ackerman proposes reforms aimed at restoring checks and balances, including the creation of a Supreme Executive Tribunal and stronger Senate oversight of the White House. The article, however, argues that these reforms may be insufficient in a context of deep political polarization and democratic erosion. It suggests that institutional engineering alone cannot protect democracy. The defense of constitutional government also requires political pluralism, organized opposition, and a robust public sphere capable of limiting executive power.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
References
Adam Przeworski, Crises of democracy 112-14 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108671019
András Sajó, Ruling by Cheating: Governance in Illiberal Democracy 97-99 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108952996
Bruce Ackerman & James Fishkin, Deliberation Day 3-4 (Yale Univ. Press, 2004).
Bruce Ackerman, Anatomy of a Constitutional Coup, 23 London Rev. Books 3 (Feb. 8, 2001), https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n03/bruce-ackerman/anatomy-of-a-constitutional-coup
Bruce Ackerman, Reconstructing Democracy and the Rule of Law After Trump, YouTube (Mar. 19, 2026), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvr_CMe6wnA&t=163s (last visited May 19, 2026) (at 28:51-31:37).
Bruce Ackerman, Revolutionary Constitutions: Charismatic Leadership and the rule of law (Harvard Univ. Press, 2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674238831
Bruce Ackerman, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic 15 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2010).
David Brooks, Trump amenaza con usar fuerza militar para mitigar las protestas, La Jornada, June 2, 2020, at 24, https://www.jornada.com.mx/2020/06/02/mundo/024n1mun
M. Chávez et al., La consistencia de la retórica de Donald Trump en Twitter sobre la inmigración. Trazando un camino para rechazar a los migrantes en los EE. UU., 18 Norteamérica. Revista Académica del CISAN-UNAM 261 (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.22201/cisan.24487228e.2023.2.639
Matthew Sharpe, Authoritarian nightmare: trump and his followers (Counter-press, 2022).
Michael Lewis, The fifth risk: undoing democracy 18-25, 46-52 (Penguin UK, 2018).
Nadia Urbinati, Democracy disfigured: opinion, truth and the people 2-5, 232 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2014). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674726383
Nadia Urbinati, Me the people: how populism transforms democracy 7-8 (Harvard Univ. Press, 2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674243576
Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die 188-89 (Crown, 2018).
Tom Ginsburg & Aziz Huq, How to save a constitutional democracy 43-46 (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2020). DOI: https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226564418.001.0001
Trump Declares National Emergency to Build Border Wall, Brennan ctr. For just. (Feb. 15, 2019), https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-declares-national-emergency-build-border-wall
