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Introduction

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The Battle for the White House

Abstract

The US presidential election 2020 took place under extraordinary conditions. It was not only overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic, but it also revealed a deeply divided society. The escalation of polarization, which culminated in the storming of the Capitol, presented extraordinary challenges to American democracy. This chapter retrospectively reviews the most important milestones of the election process and reflects on the developments in relation to American democracy. The conflict-ridden election year showed that even well established democracies like the USA can be shaken by illiberal populist politics.

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Correspondence to Christiane Lemke .

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© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature

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Lemke, C., Wiedekind, J. (2022). Introduction. In: The Battle for the White House. Springer, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38934-5_1

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