How Democracies DieNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The urgent and influential guide to the forces that have undermined democracies across the globe—forces running rampant in the United States today—hailed as “a touchstone” (The New Yorker) that “comes at exactly the right moment” (The Washington Post) “Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) “[Levitsky and Ziblatt] expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.”—Ezra Klein WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE • SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Time, Foreign Affairs, WBUR, Paste Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one. Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die. Now the question is, can our democracy be saved? Praise for How Democracies Die “If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.”—Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter) “A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 11 | |
Gatekeeping in America | 33 |
The Great Republican Abdication | 53 |
Subverting Democracy | 72 |
The Guardrails of Democracy | 97 |
The Unwritten Rules of American Politics | 118 |
The Unraveling | 145 |
Trump Against the Guardrails | 176 |
Saving Democracy | 204 |
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Common terms and phrases
African Americans Alberto Fujimori Allende allies American democracy American politics attacks authoritarian Barack Barack Obama Breakdown Bush campaign Catholic century civil Clinton coalition Congress congressional conservative constitutional convention coup crisis critics declared demagogues democratic norms Donald Trump election electoral endorsed extremist Federalist filibuster forbearance Fujimori gatekeeping Gingrich guardrails hardball Hillary Hillary Clinton Hugo Chávez Ibid impeachment invisible primary Justice Lapua Lapua Movement Latin America leaders legislative majority Mann and Ornstein McCarthy ment mutual toleration Nixon nomination opponents opposition partisan percent of Republicans polarization politicians poll President Obama President Trump primary Princeton protest Quoted racial Rafael Correa Regimes Republic Republican Party right-wing rivals Roosevelt Sarah Palin Supreme Court Tea Party Ted Cruz terrorist threat tion U.S. Senators University Press unwritten rules Venezuela violation vote Voter Fraud voter ID laws Washington Post White House would-be authoritarians York Ziblatt