THE AMERICAN WAKE-UP CALL

250 years of US democracy – and one year of the Trump presidency, which is systematically dismantling it
A guide to strengthening democracy

2026 – 250 years of American democracy. And Donald Trump’s second year back in power: a historic anniversary meets a historic turning point. Whilst the United States celebrates a quarter of a millennium as a constitutional state, President Trump continues his authoritarian overhaul – with an agenda that is more far-reaching, strategic and determined than ever before.

In her first book, the highly sought-after transatlantic political expert Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook demonstrates how American democracy is being deliberately eroded: through the systematic weakening of the separation of powers, ideological control of education and the media, the legal reinterpretation of powers, and the deliberate intimidation of political opponents. What many dismissed as chaos or isolated incidents was, in truth, part of a long-term strategy – and that is precisely what we failed to recognise.

But Clüver Ashbrook takes it a step further: she shows how the same patterns are taking hold in Europe – including in Germany. The illusion that liberal democracies are automatically stable has blinded us to the vulnerabilities from within. It is precisely where institutions are weak, education systems are unprotected and public discourse is fragmented that authoritarian strategies take hold particularly easily.

This book is a political early-warning system. And a handbook on democratic self-defence.

It identifies the weaknesses that populists systematically exploit. It shows what lessons we must learn from the American experience. And it makes it clear what needs to be done now – at the political, legal and societal levels. So that we do not look back in a few years’ time and, precisely because of our own historical responsibility, have to say: we, too, could have known better.

Cathryn Clüver Ashbrook She is a German-American political scientist and one of the most prominent transatlantic voices of our time: a frequent guest on television (ARD, ZDF, CNN, BBC) and a sought-after commentator in prestigious publications such as the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Washington Post. *The American Wake-up Call* is her first book.

Moderation
Helfried Carl, Austrian diplomat; Austrian Ambassador to Slovakia from 2014 to 2019 and former head of office to Barbara Prammer, President of the National Council; since 2019, a partner at the Innovation in Politics Institute in Vienna, which he co-founded, and founder of the European Capital of Democracy initiative. Carl is a board member of the Bruno Kreisky Forum and the Austrian Society for European Policy (ÖGFE).

Cathryn Clüver Asbrooke
The American wake-up call.
Brandstätter Verlag, 2026, €22.00