How Democracies Die

Written by two Harvard academics, this is a timely and useful account of the subject matter suggested by the title, written in an engaging fashion. Some of the discussion points were familiar from my PPE days; others have been raised with unfortunate regularity in The Atlantic et al. recently. The authors highlight how democracies can often slip (generally gradually) into autocracies, typically as a result of abuses of power. Much of their (justifiable) criticism is centred on Donald Trump, but many of the ills perpetuated by the current U.S. president are arguably perpetuations (albeit more exaggerated) of modes of behaviour set in train by previous generations of politicians. Newt Gingrich seems to merit particular blame for instituting a more conservative style of politics. Moreover, the current political setup in the U.S. also has to be seen as a manifestation of ideological fault lines; the rise of ethnic minorities and the decline of white Protestant male voters. Levitsky and Ziblatt do both provide hope from looking at countries such as the U.K. and Sweden — where democracies can flourish in multi-ethnic societies. N/R.

By Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt