Since President Nayib Bukele took office in 2019, El Salvador has undermined norms by changing the constitution, branches of government, and civil rights. While this directly threatens democracy, Bukele’s approval ratings remain at a high 92%, due to short-term changes such as a crackdown on crimes. With this in mind, democratic erosion isn’t measured by popularity, but instead by the gradual violation of institutions and norms. El Salvador shows that democratic erosion isn’t about the outcomes, but the long-term effects and violations of procedures that create a contradiction between backsliding and approval. 

Joseph Schumpeter and Robert Dahl’s definitions of democracy are the competitive struggle for the people’s vote and the participation of citizens to ensure the government represents their preferences. This emphasizes the ability to sustain democracy through procedures, not outcomes. Even if the outcomes are positive, erosion takes place when institutional procedures are weakened. Bukele demonstrates this erosion by gaining a two-thirds majority in the legislative branch and removing all five constitutional chamber magistrates, allowing the executive branch to rule without accountability. This power reflects stealth authoritarianism due to the difficulty of distinguishing between the abuse and legitimate reasoning for changes, and by legal mechanisms such as court removal, electoral laws, and undermining the rule-of-law rhetoric. This allows for reelection, a dismantled legislative branch, and human rights abuses, and reveals Bukele’s consistency with democratic erosion while also being completely legal. 

Bukele still holds a very high approval rating due to his crackdown on crime and populist political strategy, resulting in a drop in homicide rates by 95% since taking office. This dramatic change has come with a cost of detaining almost 2% of the country’s population. There have been numerous cases of documented torture and extreme overcrowding in prisons. Bukele has undermined civil rights by harassing journalists and human rights defenders who have information about criminal investigations against the state. With these examples, there has to be justification for support, and Juan Linz takes this into consideration by arguing that democratic institutions lose legitimacy when acting ineffectively. This leads to the counterargument that questions whether Bukele is just fixing a broken democracy. Past governments were seen as corrupt and ineffective, while failing to reflect citizens’ preferences, and failing to solve inequality, organized crime, and corruption, leading to doubts about whether democracy would ever allow for change. This allowed Bukele to justify his agenda and use a populist strategy by blaming the need for his power on returning political power to the people from the corrupt elite. This anti-elite and anti-pluralist agenda is used to portray this power, and is why Bukele has achieved high ratings while also destroying democratic norms. 

Overall, El Salvador is a unique case of democratic erosion because popularity doesn’t influence democracy. Bukele has dismantled norms by failing to show mutual toleration and forbearance. These are essential to democracy because they’re guardrails for preserving competition. He’s repeatedly denied opponents as legitimate and has no restraint in portraying institutional power. Popularity doesn’t preserve democracy, and should be viewed as a short-term effectiveness vs long-term stability tradeoff due to the unknown use of power in the future. With stronger institutions influencing Bukele’s decisions, the people will understand the crisis that has been gradually happening beneath the success.

Works Cited 

Amnesty International. “President Bukele Engulfs El Salvador in a Human Rights Crisis after Three Years in Government.” Amnesty International, 2 June 2022, www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/06/el-salvador-president-bukele-human-rights-crisis/.

“Approval Rate Nayib Bukele’s Performance as President 2024| Statista.” Statista, 2024, www.statista.com/statistics/1264586/approval-salvadoran-president-bukele/?srsltid=AfmBOoq5FBZo81qzum–eURUxvo6EBPgJ5ruoRZsh7q-VkksADxydl9h. Accessed 18 Apr. 2026.

“El Salvador’s Democracy Is Dying.” Human Rights Watch, 2 Sept. 2025, www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/02/el-salvadors-democracy-is-dying.

Welch, Corie. “Four Years of Ongoing Human Rights Violations in El Salvador and the Erosion of Democracy – WOLA.” WOLA, 27 Mar. 2026, www.wola.org/2026/03/four-years-of-ongoing-human-rights-violations-in-el-salvador-and-the-erosion-of-democracy/.