In both the United States and abroad, political leaders have undermined democratic institutions and norms as part of a nearly two-decade global trend of rising authoritarianism. To challenge these threats, research shows we need social movements involving broad, diverse coalitions that are tactically innovative and united around a shared strategy of success. These movements also need a clear understanding of the complex systems they are challenging.
One valuable approach for comprehending this complexity is the Pillars of Support framework. The pillars framework can be summarized in a simple image: a roof held up by several pillars. The roof represents a political system’s leaders, while the pillars represent the key organizations or institutions that give those leaders the resources and legitimacy they need to exercise power. The model rests on two insights: power in any social or political system is something that flows up from below, and this flow almost always takes place through specific institutions. If we can identify those institutions and the resources they provide to the authoritarian system, then we can understand how power operates in that system and be better equipped to change it.
Watch the video below to see how all the pillars work together as part of a big -tent, broad-front democracy movement.
You can also watch videos on the faith and veterans pillars.
About the Pillars of Support Project
Research shows that the most effective social movements involve broad, diverse coalitions that are united around a shared strategy of success. And a central element of any strategy is a clear understanding of the system that the strategy seeks to address.
Horizons conducted a set of research projects to better understand the pillars of support for authoritarianism in the US and how they can be incentivized to support pro-democracy behavior using insights from historical cases in the US and around the world. Through extensive discussions with partners, Horizons has identified five primary pillars of focus: business, faith communities, professional groups, labor, and veterans’ groups. No single framework can fully capture the complexity of the authoritarian system, but through carefully analyzing the key resources and pillars that sustain authoritarianism, pro-democracy organizers can more strategically go on offense to advance a more just, inclusive democracy.’
Key research questions include:
- What are specific examples of how these key pillars have employed moral, cultural, social, economic/financial, and political levers to push back against democratic backsliding in semi-autocratic contexts in the US and globally?
- Which groups and organizations constitute the key network nodes within each pillar in the US today?
- What lessons from domestic and international cases could inform current pro-democracy organizing in the US?
- How might these lessons inform best practices and specific tools that cross-partisan organizers can use in their work to push back against the authoritarian playbook across the US at the national level? At the state level? At the community level?
- What are the barriers to operationalizing these best practices and tools and which groups, networks, individuals, etc. are best placed to overcome them?
Explore the cases
To answer these questions, we conducted two large-scale research projects. The first was collecting data on recent periods of democratic backsliding and rising authoritarianism. While scholars of nonviolent action have categorized hundreds of tactics for activists to employ, there is a lack of mapping the tactics that are uniquely applicable to engage specific societal pillars. So, for each period we examined two sets of questions: first, if a movement to protect democracy existed during this time, how did the movement seek to incentivize pillars to push back against authoritarianism, and how successful were such efforts?
Second, we examined and systematically categorize any actions by pillars to push back against democratic backsliding and their outcomes. This enables us to identify the most effective levers that pillars have available to them to reverse authoritarianism and restore democracy.
This research provides systematic evidence of global trends both in what has been most effective in swaying pillars away from authoritarianism, and the most effective ways in which pro-democracy allies within these pillars have used their unique position of leverage to disrupt democratic backsliding. We harvested a wide range of vignettes that can provide inspiration for organizers and actors within the relevant pillars in the US.
Our second research project was developing process to conduct comprehensive mapping of the pillars of support for authoritarianism in the US, focused on our five pillars of particular interest (business, faith, civic/professional (including unions), and veterans’ groups). The most acute democratic backsliding is taking place within certain states, and levels of authoritarianism vary widely from state to state. Recognizing this fact, we are piloting a process of mapping pillars of support for authoritarian systems at the state level, conducting an initial mapping in the state of Georgia over the course of 2023. Our goal is to offer both the results of the Georgia pillars analysis and the mapping process itself as a resource for pro-democracy organizers to replicate in other states. Ultimately these efforts would be linked in a larger national-level map.
No single framework can fully capture the complexity of the authoritarian system, but through carefully analyzing the key resources that sustain authoritarianism and the pillars of support through which those resources flow pro-democracy organizers can more strategically go on the offense to build key relationships and counter authoritarianism to advance a more just, inclusive democracy.
Find all of our caselets here.
Additional resources
- Learn more about how we applied this framework to individual states
- Find caselets from around the world illustrating the impact of pillars in different movements.
- Follow Choose Democracy’s Resist List.
- Get inspired by examples of principled collective action and loving defiance from pillar actors
- Focus in on examples of noncooperation or defection by pillars actors.
- Read more about the relationship between Faith and the Authoritarian Playbook.
- Check out The Faithful Fight Toolkits, developed with Protect Democracy, to learn more about how you and your faith community can take action to build a stronger democracy. Topics range from advocating for mutual aid to practicing noncooperation and cyber security.
- Check out this article by Dan Vallone asking Could veterans put us on a path toward bringing respect and civility back to politics?
