Book Review of “How Democracies Die”

Resident Howie Nixon’s review of How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky & David Ziblatt [New York: Crown, 2018] is scheduled for Tuesday, July 20, 2021 at 7 PM in the Auditorium.

Most of us have probably taken for granted the survival of American democracy. After all, it has survived for nearly two hundred and fifty years. At least for some, however, January 6, 2021 cast some doubt on this assumption. Harvard government professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt addressed the question of the survival of American democracy in their book How Democracies Die. Although published in 2018, their research and analysis remain relevant. After spending over twenty years doing research in countries in Europe and Latin America that had experienced the loss of democracy, they turned their attention to the United States in 2016. Their book provides an opportunity to understand the conditions that contributed to January 6th and a basis for thinking seriously about the meaning of democracy and what it will take for America to survive as a real democracy in the future. The authors’ writing style makes the book highly accessible to a general audience.

Levitsky and Ziblatt review their past research, discuss the role of political parties and unwritten norms in sustaining the guardrails of democracy in America, identify indicators of authoritarian behavior by political leaders, and apply their conceptual framework to the United States. Research by Levitsky and Ziblatt and others has shown that democracy has been declining in a number of countries and overall in the world for the past few decades. Perhaps surprisingly, the loss of democracy in most of these countries in recent years has not resulted from violent takeovers or military coups. It is from a less dramatic but just as destructive process. It is at the hands of elected leaders and not generals. This is the case of the rise of electoral autocracies in which elected leaders systematically dismantle the architecture of democratic government and the norms making it possible. In describing this process, the authors provide important insights and warning signs to help us assess the vulnerability of our own nation to this kind of process.

American democracy will only be preserved if responsible citizens are aware of its status and what is required to preserve it. This book is an important and timely vehicle for stimulating discussion of this critical issue.

How Democracies Die was awarded the 2019 Goldsmith Book Prize for its contribution to improving democratic governance through examination of the intersection of the media, politics and public policy.

Howie Nixon, a Charlestown resident, is a retired professor of sociology at Towson University.

Janet Neer and Ellen Loy, Book Review Coordinators