Throughout the lead-up to November’s U.S. presidential election, many Americans have grown concerned over the state of their democracy. Polls suggest that voters across the country—and the ideological spectrum—believe that democracy is under threat. And they are not alone; over the past few years, scholars and pundits have sounded the alarm that democracy is backsliding around the world.

Today’s despots may be on the rise—but they are not invincible, argues Larry Diamond in an essay from the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs. “The key to defeating authoritarian populism is to expose its vanity, duplicity, and venality, to show it to be not a defense of the people but a fraud upon the people.” But for all the handwringing about populism, the true threat to democracy emerges from power struggles among elites, writes Larry Bartels in another new essay. Misunderstanding the nature of populism “distracts attention from the chronic vulnerabilities of democracy—notably, the perennial temptation for political leaders to entrench themselves in power.”

We’re also featuring pieces by USAID Administrator Samantha Power on the need for a new pro-democracy toolkit and Francis Fukuyama on the lessons from this year’s elections around the world. Start reading below.