Robert BENSON

Senior Policy Analyst National Security and International Policy, Center for American Progress

Across democracies, the threat to liberal institutions no longer comes from the margins. It sits at the centre of politics – in ruling parties that rewrite constitutions, normalise disinformation, and turn resentment into strategy. Yet the story of recent years is not only one of democratic decline. In several key countries, progressives have begun to find ways to fight back. Their experiences point to a common truth: when the left organises around broad coalitions, offers a credible vision of material security, and resists imitating the grievance-based populism it seeks to defeat, it can still win – and govern with purpose.

Poland’s 2023 parliamentary election offered one of the clearest examples of partial democratic recovery in recent memory. After eight years of rule by the Law and Justice party, the country’s democratic institutions had eroded to the brink: captured courts, state-controlled media, and a politicised public administration. Yet civil society persisted, and so did a fragmented opposition. When elections approached, three opposition parties – the centrist Civic Coalition, the Third Way and the progressive Left – directed their messaging against PiS in an effort to restore the rule of law.

That informal alliance, if implausible, broke the populist stronghold. Despite ideological differences, Poland’s opposition recognised that pluralism itself was at stake. The victory did not come from a single party but from the collective credibility of a pro-democracy camp willing to work together. The lesson is straightforward: when the threat is existential, various parties must set aside ideological divides and act as a united front in defence of democracy. Factional infighting cannot stand up to authoritarian discipline.

United States: reclaiming an affirmative vision 

In the United States, the challenge has taken a different shape. President Donald Trump’s brand of authoritarian populism has proven durable because it channels real grievances – economic insecurity, social precarity and the sense that government no longer delivers. Progressives have learned that moral outrage alone cannot defeat that narrative. Voters respond to tangible improvements in their lives, not just appeals to democratic norms.

That reality has produced an emerging consensus within the Democratic coalition. In the off-cycle elections last week, both the democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York and pragmatic centrists like Governors-elect Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey have shown that a commitment to affordability – from housing to healthcare to education– can unite voters across class and ideology. Their approaches differ, but their underlying message converges: dignity is not a partisan concept. When citizens can afford opportunity, they become less vulnerable to the politics of resentment.

Progressives cannot out-fearmonger the right. But they can disarm its appeal by addressing the structural inequities that give it oxygen. The fight for democracy, in this sense, is inseparable from the fight against economic precarity. If people live in constant want, the promise of self-government loses meaning.

United Kingdom: governing honestly

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government entered office with historic momentum and broad public trust. Yet its early months have revealed a worrying instinct to govern by focus group rather than by principles. The abrupt reversal on heating benefits was emblematic – a policy decision made without clarity of purpose, then abandoned without real explanation. The result was confusion and frustration among both supporters and critics.

Labour’s challenge mirrors that of centre-left parties elsewhere: to balance pragmatism with real leadership. Voters do not expect perfection, but they do expect honesty. When Progressives treat politics as a game of tactical avoidance rather than moral leadership, they erode the trust required to sustain their popularity. Governing seriously means explaining difficult trade-offs, not ducking them – and it also means refusing to cater to the lowest common denominator by tacking right on, for example, social benefits.

The rise of Reform and the collapse of the Conservative Party under Kemi Badenoch’s leadership have shown that imitating the far right does not succeed in winning over its voters. A lesson Labour would be wise to heed.

Three lessons for the democratic Left

Across these cases, three lessons stand out.

First, big tents win. Poland’s opposition understood that defeating authoritarian populism required unity, not ideological conformity. The left must embrace broad coalition politics as a form of democratic self-defence.

Second, right-wing grievance cannot be met with right-wing grievance. In the United States, progressives are learning that the most effective way to counter populism is to address its material roots. When politics restores people’s sense of agency and economic dignity, the emotional terrain shifts.

Third, imitation corrodes credibility. Labour’s early missteps show the dangers of chasing right-wing narratives or governing through short-term calculations. The public can forgive mistakes; it does not forgive drift.

The path forward

Progressives will face hard elections ahead – in the US next year, across Europe soon after. The forces arrayed against them are disciplined, well-funded, and united by grievance. But the last two years have shown that the authoritarian tide is not inevitable. Where the Left organises broadly, governs responsibly and leads with purpose, it can still renew democracy’s promise.

The challenge is not just to win elections but to rebuild belief in the possibility of democratic government itself – that the state can protect rights, deliver stability and make life fairer. That belief remains the most powerful weapon against authoritarian populism. The task for progressives is to prove it true.

Photo credits: Shutterstock.com/lev radin