Historically, there has been the proverbial argument about whether the United States is a democracy or republic. The answer is the United States is both. But that question pales in comparison to the ...

Is the United States headed toward autocracy? That is a question prompted by a steady stream of executive orders seeking to consolidate power in the White House and upend long-held policies and norms.

Schemes of national governance are complicated and subject to generalization, but for the sake of argument, let’s put “democracy” at one end of a spectrum and “autocracy” at the other and consider the ...