Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in How Democracies Die, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
American Tyranny
Authoritarianism vs. Democratic Norms
Extremism and Gatekeeping
Polarization and Inclusive Democracy
Global and Historical Patterns
Summary
Analysis
“Is our democracy in danger?” ask Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, political scientists who research global authoritarianism. U.S. politics has changed in unprecedented ways since the mid-2010s, and similar changes have caused other democracies to collapse. So even though Americans tend to believe that their democracy is uniquely strong, there’s reason to worry that it’s now declining. Politicians are attacking their opposition, the free press, and the legitimacy of elections. They are weaking important institutions like the courts and restricting voting at the state level. Donald Trump has no political experience and “clear authoritarian tendencies.”
Levitsky and Ziblatt worry that Americans’ faith in their democracy might prevent them from understanding how Donald Trump threatens it. They bring their extensive knowledge about global authoritarianism to bear on the U.S. in order to illustrate these threats and show Americans that their democracy is not as flawless or invincible as they may like to think. It’s true that U.S. democracy has been particularly long-lasting. But there’s no magical element that makes it immune to collapse. As Levitsky and Ziblatt will later argue, democracy has endured in the U.S. through the 20th century because of effective norms (which are now falling apart) and racial exclusion (which has fortunately changed since the 1960s).
Themes
In September 1973, the Chilean military bombed the presidential palace and ousted the elected president, Salvador Allende. Such coups d’état are the classic way to destroy democracy, and they happened frequently during the Cold War.
Levitsky and Ziblatt narrate the 1973 Chilean coup d’état in order to help their readers understand the contrast between how democracies used to die and how they die now. This contrast is important because it can help readers understand the kind of threat that American democracy faces and the kind of authoritarian state that it risks becoming.
Themes
But democracies can also die when “elected leaders […] subvert the very process that brought them to power.” They can do this quickly—like Adolf Hitler did in 1933—or they can do it slowly, like Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. Chávez was elected in 1998, took some small authoritarian steps in 2003, and started arresting political opponents in 2006. But the country kept holding free elections—the opposition even won in 2015. Venezuela didn’t become fully authoritarian until Chávez’s successor Nicolás Maduro replaced Congress with one-party rule in 2017.
Now, authoritarians destroy democracy from the inside rather than the outside. These historical and international examples illustrate a kind of worst-case scenario for the United States. This proves that democracies—even historically successful ones like the U.S.’s—are always vulnerable to takeover from within. Institutions, traditions, and checks and balances are not enough to protect democracy on their own. Instead, people committed to democratic norms and principles need to use these tools to fend off tyranny.
Themes
This is how democracy commonly dies today: elected leaders gradually destroy it to keep power. This backsliding is a dangerous pattern because, unlike coups d’état, it happens slowly, and “there are no tanks in the streets.” Democratic institutions appear to continue functioning. Leaders employ the legislature and courts to help undo democracy, while often claiming to be defending or improving it. Many citizens don’t even realize what’s happening.
Levitsky and Ziblatt explain that this new form of authoritarianism is particularly dangerous because it looks like democracy from the outside. Politicians and citizens may disagree about whether democracy is collapsing or even justify authoritarianism in the name of democracy. Therefore, learning to identify and prevent this democratic backsliding is essential. This is part of why Levitsky and Ziblatt carefully define the key traits of authoritarian candidates, rulers, and governments in this book.
Themes
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To understand whether the U.S. is experiencing such a democratic crisis, Levitsky and Ziblatt will compare it to other democracies from history in this book. By “democracy,” they mean a government that holds “regular, free and fair elections” and gives all adult citizens voting rights and essential civil liberties (like free speech). They hope to help Americans see patterns in authoritarianism around the world and learn from other countries’ successes and mistakes.
Readers may have differing opinions about how democratic the U.S. is when it comes to aspects of government besides elections and civil rights. The authors also emphasize that U.S. democracy has long depended on the undemocratic exclusion of Black citizens. Still, they’re not trying to give a perfect definition of democracy, once and for all. Instead, they’re offering a working definition that is useful for measuring how democratic different governments are at different points in time. They compare the U.S. to other countries in order to point out that, contrary to many Americans’ beliefs, U.S. democracy is vulnerable to change or collapse.
Themes
All countries produce “extremist demagogues,” but in healthy democracies, political parties stop them from gaining power. If these demagogues do gain power, democratic institutions and norms should constrain them. Otherwise, demagogues will use these same institutions—like the courts, media, and private sector—to destroy democracy.
Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that the measure of a democracy isn’t whether it has anti-democratic elements in it, but rather whether the system manages to stop those anti-democratic elements. In other words, democracy isn’t just something that passively exists on its own in a society. Instead, it’s something that people have to constantly, actively promote against forces that want to destroy it. The responsibility for stopping these anti-democratic forces lies first with party gatekeepers and second with the people who run institutions and set political norms.
Themes
In 2016, the U.S. “failed the first test” by electing Donald Trump. Many Americans expect constitutional checks and balances to stop Trump and protect democracy, but they can’t unless “unwritten democratic norms” reinforce them. In the U.S., the two key norms are mutual toleration (accepting the other side as legitimate) and institutional forbearance (refraining from using all of one’s legal powers). But they’ve been eroding since the 1980s, especially because of the U.S.’s extreme polarization around politics, culture, and race. History shows that this is a warning sign for any democracy. But it also shows that nations can stop and reverse democratic breakdowns. Protecting American democracy will require humility, courage, and a careful look at history.
Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote this book in 2018, about a year into Trump’s presidency. To them, the fate of American democracy was up in the air—and readers can decide whether or not it still is, in their own time. The authors hope that their knowledge about democracy and authoritarianism in the rest of the world can help Americans evaluate what to do in their own political circumstances. Here, they lay out two of their book’s central arguments. First, democratic norms are the key to stopping authoritarianism, which means that the U.S. needs to reinforce these norms in order to stop Donald Trump. Second, while Trump is certainly dangerous, his presidency is only possible because of a longer, equally dangerous process of democratic breakdown. This breakdown comes from political polarization, which is largely a response to racial inclusivity in American politics since the 1960s.
Themes
