In this incisive and razor-sharp analysis of one of the most important issues facing us today, leading Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt draw on their combined expertise of over 40 years to examine how dictators come to power, and how they help to foster a poisonous culture of polarisation, fear and suspicion that persists even after their time in power is over.Using contemporary examples including the Capitol riots and voter suppression in the US, as well as global examples from history including post-1945 Germany and Brazil and Chile during the '60s and '70s, the authors dissect conservative resistance to pluralism and modern threats to multiracial democracy (including the unwillingness of political parties to adapt to modern times, and a growing disregard for constitutional norms and free and fair elections) while imploring readers to stand up in its defence.Focusing on the forthcoming American election as an essential case study, Saving Democracy offers us imperative tools for implementing urgent democratic reform, brilliantly illuminating how we can respond to the political battles ahead.
Steven Levitsky Books
Steven Levitsky is a distinguished Professor of Government at Harvard University, whose work delves deeply into the dynamics of political parties, authoritarianism, and democratization. With a particular focus on Latin America, he scrutinizes weak and informal institutions, examining their influence on political systems. His research explores the durability of revolutionary regimes, the relationship between populism and competitive authoritarianism, and the challenges of party-building in contemporary Latin America. Levitsky's scholarship illuminates the complex mechanisms that shape political regimes and their resilience.
Competitive Authoritarianism. Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War
- 536 pages
- 19 hours of reading
Competitive authoritarian regimes – in which autocrats submit to meaningful multiparty elections but engage in serious democratic abuse – proliferated in the post–Cold War era. Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.
In the twenty-first century democracy is threatened like never before. Drawing on insightful lessons from across history -- from Pinochet's murderous Chilean regime to Erdogan's quiet dismantling in Turkey -- Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt explain why democracies fail, how leaders like Trump subvert them today and what each of us can do to protect our democratic rights.
Wie Demokratien sterben + Die Tyrannei der Minderheit + 1 exklusives Postkartenset
- 669 pages
- 24 hours of reading