Donald Trump's presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we'd be asking Is our democracy in danger Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang in a revolution or military coup but with a whimper the slow steady weakening of critical institutions such as the judiciary and the press and the gradual erosion of long standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that by electing Trump we have already passed the first one.