If you’ve listened to the major candidates for president, democracy and freedom are on the ballot this year – though what that means varies greatly depending on who is talking.

“Whether democracy is still America's sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time,” President Joe Biden said during his first campaign event of the year. “That's what the 2024 election is all about.” His campaign later shelled out nearly $10 million in May on an ad narrated by Robert De Niro about Trump “threatening to be a dictator.”

Democracy remained a theme when Vice President Kamala Harris took the top spot on the ticket and reframed it with a focus on freedom – and the freedoms she says Trump will take away if elected.

But Democrats aren’t alone. Former President Donald Trump also has claimed the future of democracy depends on his being elected.

"If we don't win this election, I don't think you're going to have another election in this country," Trump said in March.

The warring narratives are playing out amid significant approval of authoritarianism internationally and in the U.S.: According to the Pew Research Center, 32% of Americans in 2023 said rule by a strong leader or the military would be a good way of governing the country, with support more common among those on the ideological right. The statistics are bolstered by a U.S. News survey of nearly 17,000 people conducted earlier this year, in which 47% of global respondents agreed with the statement, “My country’s leader should have total, unchecked authority.” A higher share of U.S. respondents – 57% – agreed with the statement.

So is democracy really on the ballot, and if so, who would protect it?

When Trump told a crowd of conservative Christians that they........

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