Thoughtful piece on how the normalization of states of emergency has itself become increasingly normalized in the Americas. What can we learn about the risks of such normalization by looking at countries where the process has gone further?

Across [the Americas], this pattern repeats: Emergency powers, once framed as exceptional tools for brief crises, have become central instruments of governance in countries grappling with political instability, organized crime, and eroding public trust. This shift matters not because emergencies themselves are new—every constitutional system allows for extraordinary authority in moments of genuine crisis—but because of how routinely and predictably these powers now appear, reappear, and persist. What was designed as a temporary suspension of ordinary legal and institutional constraints increasingly functions as a parallel mode of rule.

Executives rely on emergency authorities not only to respond to acute threats but also to manage chronic problems that democratic institutions have struggled to resolve. Over time, this reliance reshapes expectations: Legislatures grow accustomed to governing by renewing these executive powers rather than deliberation, courts recalibrate standards of deference, and security forces assume a more permanent role in public life. The result is not the collapse of democracy, but a subtler transformation in how it operates, with legality yielding to expediency and crisis becoming a standing justification rather than an exception. The increasing prevalence of these emergency powers complicates U.S. policy, making it more difficult to recognize democratic backsliding, even as Washington has used similar emergency measures to justify executive action.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-hemisphere-of-exceptions