{"id":4289,"date":"2025-12-03T01:12:35","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=4289"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:16:02","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T01:16:02","slug":"reprint-what-we-can-do-after-nokings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2025\/12\/03\/reprint-what-we-can-do-after-nokings\/","title":{"rendered":"Reprint: What We Can Do After NoKings"},"content":{"rendered":"

10 effective things citizens can do to make change in addition to attending a\u00a0protest<\/h3>\n
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A crowd gathered for a \u201cNo Kings\u201d protest on October 18, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska.
\nHasan Akbas\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shelley Inglis<\/a>, Rutgers University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What happens now?<\/p>\n

That may well be the question being asked by \u201cNo Kings\u201d protesters<\/a>, who marched, rallied and danced all over the nation on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.<\/p>\n

Pro-democracy groups had aimed to encourage large numbers of Americans to demonstrate that \u201ctogether we are choosing democracy<\/a>.\u201d They were successful<\/a>, with crowds turning out for demonstrations in thousands of cities and towns from Anchorage to Miami.<\/p>\n

And while multiple GOP leaders<\/a> had attacked the planned demonstrations, describing them as \u201chate America\u201d rallies, political science scholars<\/a> and national security experts agree<\/a> that the current U.S. administration\u2019s actions are indeed placing the world\u2019s oldest continuous constitutional republic in jeopardy.<\/p>\n

Once a democracy starts to erode, it can be difficult to reverse the trend. Only 42% of democracies affected by autocratization \u2013 a transformation in governance that erodes democratic safeguards \u2013 since 1994 have rebounded after a democratic breakdown, according to Swedish research institute V-Dem<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Often termed \u201cdemocratic backsliding<\/a>,\u201d such periods involve government-led changes to rules and norms to weaken individual freedoms and undermine or eliminate checks on power exercised by independent institutions, both governmental and non-governmental.<\/p>\n

Democracies that have suffered setbacks vary widely, from Hungary to Brazil<\/a>. As a longterm practitioner of democracy-building overseas<\/a>, I know that none of these countries rival<\/a> the United States\u2019 constitutional traditions, federalist system, economic wealth, military discipline, and vibrant independent media, academia and nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n

Even so, practices used globally to fight democratic backsliding or topple autocracies can be instructive<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell: Nonviolent resistance is based on noncooperation with autocratic actions. It has proven more effective<\/a> in toppling autocracies than violent, armed struggle.<\/p>\n

But it requires more than street demonstrations.<\/p>\n