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In my course on authoritarian regimes, I once taught my students how modern authoritarians abandon the public repressive strategies of their predecessors. Today’s authoritarians often come to power through democratic elections and then erode democracy through seemingly legitimate means. They adopted a new script and borrowed the cloak of democracy, but it has no function.

Although I will warn my students that no country is immune to these hidden authoritarian threats, but I can say that these lectures have never really resonated. My students believe that authoritarian takeover will only happen in backward, remote places, countries full of corruption and incompetence, and countries ending in -stan.

So I decided to go to the gangster.

I threw away my handouts and instead asked my students to do something they had never done before: play the role of an aspiring dictator and figure out a way to destroy American democracy. The students studied the script of modern authoritarian government and adapted it into the United States. Then they switch roles and develop measures to guard against the most serious threats.

In creating this exercise, I followed the leadership of Merck CEO Kenneth Fraser. Like most executives, Fraser hopes to promote innovation at Merck. But unlike most executives who only ask employees to "innovate," Fraser asked them to come up with ideas to destroy Merck and figure out how to bankrupt Merck. Then, the executives changed their roles and developed strategies to avoid these threats.

The "Kill American Democracy" exercise, adapted from Fraser's "Kill the Company," should happen—not only in the classrooms of my law school—but also in city halls and dining tables across the United States.

When we talk about protecting American democracy in the abstract, we don’t know the urgency of doing so. After all, the American democratic system has shown tremendous resilience. Although we may lament the large sums of money, the influence of Russians and special interest groups, we do not think there will be a regime change here.

But when we put ourselves in the position of dictator and actually develop strategies to destroy American democracy, the weaknesses in the system will be exposed. Participants in the exercise conditions look for subtle ways in which democratic erosion may occur. Only when we are aware of the fragility of the system, we will realize the need to protect it.

More importantly, conversations about the decline of American democracy often repeat the same 140-character talking points. By asking participants to switch perspectives and play the active role of their opponents, this exercise requires them to fundamentally rethink their methods, deploy new neural pathways, and come up with original ideas that transcend clichés. It is one thing to say "Let's think outside the box". It's another matter to actually go out and check the system from the perspective of the person trying to destroy it.

For many of my students, breaking American democracy is difficult, but it can be done.

For example, students came up with ways to weaken the media and create a culture of self-censorship. Six companies own 90% of the media in the United States. If the government can succumb to the will of these six companies, it will also control 90% of the information consumed by the American public. The students used a carrot and stick approach to get these media companies to comply with the regulations: they passed seemingly legitimate tax audits and building inspections, rewarded friendly media companies, and punished disloyal media companies. When these strategies do not work, students buy directly or have their cronies buy media giants to establish control over them.

The students sued them for defamation, rather than imprisoning journalists or shutting down the media for obvious repression. This was a tactic used during the Civil Rights Movement, when Southern officials used defamation lawsuits to suppress critics and suppress media coverage of the civil rights struggle. These defamation lawsuits will force journalists to burn money they don’t have and promote self-censorship.

The students also developed a plan to use freedom of speech as an incitement machine and spread lies in the media. Once they are reported and reposted, they become the truth. They created an army of trolls and used false information to rule digital media. They established and funded their own civil society groups and provided funds to these groups at the expense of independent non-governmental organizations. They created monsters to unify their base and create public enemies among the opposition. They create domestic and foreign conflicts in order to increase the public recognition of the executive branch. They increase surveillance, ostensibly to combat organized crime and terrorism, but use these laws to blackmail or discredit political opponents by selectively divulging information about political opponents. They distracted the public through government alms, tax cuts and expanded social welfare programs.

Through this exercise, students realize that the possibility of falling into a dictatorship will not happen overnight. There will be no tanks on the ground to force a transition to tyranny. The advantage of these strategies is that they continue to accumulate in a "di, di, and di" manner. Over time, the pressure on the democratic system will increase, just as the pressure on water pipes increases. These measures are slow but sure to erode the foundations of freedom and democracy until the pipeline finally ruptures.

The exercise clearly demonstrated the urgency of action. In this century, the threat to democracy will not come from military coups or openly suppressed dictators, but from elected politicians in seemingly democratic countries, who gradually push for authoritarian agendas. The students realized the importance of being vigilant about these strategies and actively resisting them through legal, political and social means.

Contrary to intuition, the best way to protect American democracy may be to find a way to destroy it in the first place.

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