Graduation Year
2026
Date of Submission
4-2026
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Government
Reader 1
Michael Fortner
Terms of Use & License Information
Abstract
This thesis examines how President Donald Trump’s executive campaign against elite law firms, collectively known as “Big Law,” serves as a concrete case study of competitive authoritarianism in action. Drawing on Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way’s framework in their work The Path to American Authoritarianism, this thesis applies their four pillars of competitive authoritarianism to the administration’s executive orders targeting major law firms and maps those pillars onto three distinct firm responses: fighting back, capitulation, and quiet retreat. Situating this case study within the broader political context of Trump’s second term, this thesis finds that while the United States has not yet ceased to function as a democracy, the administration’s targeted pressure on big law reflects the institutional logic and ethos of competitive authoritarianism operating on a smaller scale. The erosion of legal independence, even among the most powerful and wealthy firms in the country, exposes the mechanics of democratic backsliding in modern day America.
Recommended Citation
Ali, Sajah, "Tilting the Playing Field: Executive Attacks on Big Law Firms as a Mechanism of American Competitive Authoritarianism" (2026). CMC Senior Theses. 4189.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/4189
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