Review of How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt (original) (raw)
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Book Review: Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt. 2018. How democracies die. New York: Broadway Books. 320 pp. ISBN 9781524762940.
A Discussion of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die
Perspectives on Politics, 2018
Among the many scholarly attempts to reckon with the causes and consequences of Donald Trump’s rise, few have attracted popular attention on the scale of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die. Seldom do books by political scientists make it onto the New York Times best sellers list, but this one has, a testament to its broad influence. Levitsky and Ziblatt situate Trumpism within a broader comparative and historical context in order to assess its similarities to and differences from democratic breakdowns elsewhere, particularly in Europe and Latin America. Their broad argument is that modern slides into authoritarianism are not the result of revolutions or military coups, but rather the consequence of a steady erosion of political norms and the assault on such fundamental democratic institutions as an independent judiciary and a free press. In short, contemporary democracies die not as a result of men with guns attacking from outside the system, but rather because...
How Democracies Perish Eric Chenoweth final
There have been many who prognosticated democracy's doom. It now may seem strange that one of France's most brilliant political theorists, Jean François Revel, an ardent defender of Western liberal democracy, once feared that democracy might not survive the threat posed by the Soviet Union and its disciplined pursuit of world power. While the Soviet threat was not imaginary, democracy survived its most potent postwar adversary. Today, however, we must again wonder: even without such a global threat as Soviet communism, could democracy still perish? Is it vulnerable, as Revel wrote, to internal enemies " seeking to abolish it legally " ? Could modern democracy, like ancient democracy before it, end up being a historical anomaly? These are not frivolous academic questions. We face a clear and present danger. For the first time in American history, an explicitly authoritarian candidate has gained the nomination to the US presidency of one of America's two major parties. We can hope that the majority of the voters will save American democracy from its grave threat. Certainly, the danger his candidacy poses merits the largest possible repudiation in the general elections (see also my earlier article, " The Authoritarian Temptation "). Yet, hope is no substitute for analysis. The following is an analysis of how an authoritarian has a realistic chance to be president of the most established democracy in the world.
Review, How Democracy Ends by David Runciman (Basic Books, 2018).pdf
New York Journal of Books, July 2 , 2018
The publication of How Democracy Ends coincides with a particularly turbulent period for Western democracies. Runciman describes it as democracy’s midlife crisis. Various democratic societies are at different points in their lives. But there is compelling evidence that the future is going to be different.
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The decline of democracy as the predominant and most prevalent form of government on earth is the question at issue in this succinct collection edited by Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner.
Taking the Threat to Democracy Seriously
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During the summer of 2018, I had occasion to write a book review of How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The book has its flaws, including practicing the kind of partisanship that it highlights and claims to deplore. But, whatever the book’s flaws, Levitsky and Ziblatt clearly demonstrate that it can happen here — our democracy can actually die — by contrasting the decline of democratic norms in America over the past forty-five years with countries in which similar experiences led to dictatorial rule. According to the authors, the fundamental change that explains the end of democratic systems is the decline of tolerance for rule by the other side and the resulting end of forbearance against using all legal means to prevent that outcome. When political competition becomes unremitting warfare, democracy may come to an end. Who can doubt that this describes America today? Levitsky and Ziblatt demonstrate the various ways that American politicians do everything in ...
The Evolution and Destruction of Democracy and the Democratic Process: Warning Signs of Extinction
It is unfortunate today that most educational systems have determined to do away with classes in civics and government, the negative effects of just this one decision is proliferating across most democracies, especially Western democracies. Past generations learned the basics of democracy, from itséarly birth and what the basic idea of democracy and democratic societies was and what it meant to live in a democracy. Looking back to the 5 th century and following this idea of how people and societies should be governed one can only arrive at the conclusion that today in 2018 democracy and the original idea and benefits this form of government was designed to provide to citizens living in what we refer to as a democratic government, society has moved very far away from those ideals. If we start from the original understandings of democracy and the democratic process here is what we find as the primary principle: A system of processing decisions and conflicts in which outcomes depend on what most benefits the majority and a process in which no single force controls what occurs and the outcome. This is often simplified by stating that democracy is a process that establishes the concept of " the rule of the majority ". Ultimately, we find that in order to be considered a democracy or a democratic government there are four key factors that will make that determination. 1. There must be a system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections in which the principle of " one man, one vote " forms the basis. 2. There must be evident active participation by citizens in the political process and in the society 3. There must be a guarantee and protection of basic human rights of citizens 4. There must be clear evidence of the rule of law and procedures applied and enforced equally on all citizens. The rest of this paper will take each of these determining factors and look at them in the present light in order to support the realities of democracies and where they actually are in 2018. The primary focus will be on the United States, however, all Western democracies have all or most all of the same fissures, some more acute than others but all suffer the same degradation of these basic principles and pillars.
Why Democracies Collapse: The Reasons for Democratic Failure and Success
International Political Science Review/ Revue internationale de science politique, 2005
... that have access to government. The end result is democratic instability (Daalder, 1971; Hazan, 1995, 1997; Ieraci, 1992; Lane and Ersson, 1987; Powell, 1986; Sani and Sartori, 1983; Sartori, 1976). Another variable in the ...