How Democracies Die

One of my favourite reads this year . . . a provocative, timely book -- Elif Shafak As someone who has been an awfully big fan of America's Constitution, it was disheartening to see how well Levitsky and Ziblatt made their case that we should be concerned about the trends in this country. The notion that it can't happen here does not hold up that well to Levitsky and Ziblatt's scrutiny... It was so well-written -- Daniel W. Drezner * Washington Post * [How Democracies Die] is a stellar deep-dive into a series of modern democracies that ceased to be. * Daily Kos * Maybe have a drink before digging into this one. Levitsky and Ziblatt trace the fall of democracies throughout history with agonizing clarity, going right up to our current perilous moment. * Entertainment Weekly * Levitsky and Ziblatt are not entirely pessimistic... but they leave readers in no doubt that they should be worried about the state of American democracy. * Slate * Chilling... A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald Trump's ascent and the fall of other democracies. * Kirkus Reviews * Readers will not find an anti-Trump screed in How Democracies Die. The book is more erudite than alarmist... but that makes [Levitsky and Ziblatt's] clarity on the risk of both Trump and wider political developments all the more powerful. * California magazine * How Democracies Die studies the modern history of apparently healthy democracies that have slid into autocracy. It is hard to read this fine book without coming away terribly concerned about the possibility Trump might inflict a mortal wound on the health of the republic.... It is simplistic to expect boots marching in the streets, but there will be a battle for democracy. -- Jonathan Chait * New York Magazine * Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics. -- Ezra Klein * Vox * The authors argue, with good evidence, that democracies aren't destroyed because of the impulses of a single man; they are, instead, degraded in the course of a partisan tit-for-tat dynamic that degrades norms over time until one side sees an opening to deliver the death blow. Donald Trump is not a dictator. But it's impossible to read How Democracies Die without worrying that our collective decay of democratic norms may open the door to one down the line-perhaps even one of an entirely different ideological persuasion. * Wall Street Journal * The big advantage of political scientists over even the shrewdest and luckiest of eavesdropping journalists is that they have the training to give us a bigger picture.... [Levitsky and Ziblatt] bring to bear useful global and historical context... [showing] the mistakes democratic politicians make as they let dangerous demagogues into the heart of power. * The Sunday Times * The great strength of Levitsky and Ziblatt's How Democracies Die is that it rejects the exceptionalist account of US democracy. Their lens is comparative. The authors say America is not immune to the trends that have led to democracy's collapse in other parts of the world. * Financial Times * Named a 'Book of the Week' -- Fareed Zakaria on Fareed Zakaria's GPS on CNN Grander, more didactic ambitions underpin How Democracies Die ... a more scholarly approach * The Economist * We're already awash in public indignation-what we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that. * The Washington Post * Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies have collapsed elsewhere-not just through violent coups, but more commonly (and insidiously) through a gradual slide into authoritarianism.... How Democracies Die is a lucid and essential guide to what can happen here. * New York Times * The show is likely to go on. To work out why, readers should turn to...How Democracies Die. The great strength of it is that it rejects the exceptionalist account of US democracy. -- Edward Luce * Financial Times * The sobriety is welcome and it adds a quiet, understated chill to the text. -- Roger Boyes * The Times * 'How Democracies Die' comes at exactly the right moment. We're already awash in public indignation - what we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that. -- Christian Caryl * Washington Post * After the populist revolts of 2016, the big question on everybody's lips is will democracy be up to the challenge? In this incredibly timely and informative book, Levitsky and Ziblatt take you on a global tour of the big challenges to democracy and along the way equip readers with a far stronger understanding of what is happening and what could happen next. I don't say must read often but this is book sits firmly within that category. -- Professor Matt Goodwin, author of Revolt on the Right [An] important new book. -- Nicholas Kristof * New York Times * The political-science text in vogue this winter is How Democracies Die. * The New Yorker * Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have offered a brilliant diagnosis of the most important issue facing our world: Can democracy survive? With clinical precision and an extraordinary grasp of history, they point to the warning signs of decay and define the obligations of those who would preserve free government. If there is an urgent book for you to read at this moment, it is How Democracies Die. -- E.J. Dionne Jr., co-author of One Nation After Trump Magisterial, compelling... sweeps across the globe and through history to analyze how democracies die. The result is an unforgettable framework for diagnosing the state of affairs here and our prospects for recovery. -- Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration and Cuz 'How Democracies Die' is a lucid and essential guide . . . Levitsky and Ziblatt assiduously dismantle the myth of American exceptionalism -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times * In a new book about Trump's America, two political scientists from Harvard, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, discuss How Democracies Die . In it they emphasise the importance of not just political rules but how we behave ... Got that, Donald? -- Andrew Marr * Evening Standard * In this brilliant historical synthesis, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how the actions of elected leaders around the world have paved the road to democratic failure, and why the United States is now vulnerable to this same downward spiral. This book should be widely and urgently read as a clarion call to restore the shared beliefs and practices-beyond our formal constitution-that constitute the essential 'guardrails' for preserving democracy. -- Larry Diamond, author of The Spirit of Democracy The greatest of the many merits of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's contribution to what will doubtless be the ballooning discipline of democracy death studies is their rejection of western exceptionalism. They tell inspiring stories I had not heard before...excellent, scholarly and readable, alarming and level-headed. -- Nick Cohen * The Guardian * There are two must-read books about the Trump presidency at the moment. This is the one you probably haven't heard of. It is also the one that is most useful to British readers. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt are anti-Donald Trump politics professors at Harvard. And the big advantage of political scientists over even the shrewdest and luckiest of eavesdropping journalists is that they have the training to give us a bigger picture. They set out some rules about the slow, internal collapse of democracies, which are entirely relevant to Britain... -- Andrew Marr * The Times * What's the worst thing to happen to US democracy recently? Most answers to that question start and end with Donald Trump. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, though as horrified by Trump as anyone, try to take a wider view. This book looks to history to provide a guide for defending democratic norms when they are under threat, and finds that it is possible to fight back. Provocative and readable. -- David Runciman * The Guardian * We owe the authors a debt of thanks for bringing their deep understanding to bear on the central political issue of the day. -- Francis Fukuyama, author of Political Order and Political Decay With great energy and integrity [Levitsky and Ziblatt] apply their expertise to the current problems of the United States. -- Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt is a useful primer on the importance of norms, institutional restraints and civic participation in maintaining a democracy - and how quickly those things can erode when we're not paying attention * President Barack Obama * Anyone who is concerned about the future of democracy should read this brisk, accessible book. Anyone who is not concerned should definitely read it. -- Daron Acemoglu, co-author of Why Nations Fail