When Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu — widely seen as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s most formidable political rival — was arrested at his home on flimsy corruption charges, Turkey entered a new and dangerous phase in its long democratic unravelling. His detention, followed by mass protests, violent crackdowns, and the arrest of demonstrators and journalists, is the natural outcome of years of democratic backsliding — which began with the dismantling of judicial independence.

Turkey’s descent is not just Turkey’s problem, and it’s not just inconvenient because Turkey is large and important, but is a fundamental warning about political systems. The architecture of liberal democracy — checks and balances, independent courts, protected rights — doesn’t dismantle itself overnight. It is chipped away, often in full view of the public, under the pretense of “majority rule.” It happens gradually, even legally, until suddenly a country that holds elections no longer holds power to account.

The signs of democratic backsliding, always with the freedom of the courts politicized or threatened, are visible in many countries once thought immune — most prominently at present in Israel, Hungary … and the United States.

Once that’s successful, as it’s been in Erdogan’s Turkey, leaders feel free to arrest political rivals on trumped up charges. The next step from this stage — which we might call fake democracy — is full dictatorship. Then, as occurred in Russia, Vladimir Putin’s rival Alexei Navalny turns up dead in a gulag.

A clarification is needed, since the term liberal democracy is often misunderstood in America. “Liberal,” in this context, has nothing........

© The Hill