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Levitsky and Ziblatt compare democratic norms to guardrails in order to illustrate how they protect political systems against anti-democratic elements. Just as guardrails protect people from falling off a balcony or cars from veering off a freeway, democratic norms can protect a democracy in its moment of greatest need. But most of the time, they just sit passively in the background, so it’s easy to underestimate their importance.
Specifically, norms like mutual toleration and institutional forbearance protect democracies by helping them course-correct when authoritarian leaders take power. In short, when the majority of lawmakers believe in toleration and forbearance, they isolate and punish others who break from those norms. For instance, during three key moments when powerful politicians challenged democratic norms in the 20th century U.S.—Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attempts to expand executive power, Joseph McCarthy’s persecution of suspected communists, and Richard Nixon’s abuses of presidential power to sabotage his electoral opponents—Congress united to stop and sanction the offenders. But these guardrails also explain why Donald Trump’s presidency is so dangerous: the guardrails are no longer functioning like they’re supposed to. Therefore, according to the authors, Trump genuinely risks pushing American democracy over the edge to authoritarianism.
Democracy’s Guardrails Quotes in How Democracies Die
The How Democracies Die quotes below all refer to the symbol of Democracy’s Guardrails. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 7 Quotes
The traditions underpinning America’s democratic institutions are unraveling, opening up a disconcerting gap between how our political system works and long-standing expectations about how it ought to work. As our soft guardrails have weakened, we have grown increasingly vulnerable to antidemocratic leaders.
Donald Trump, a serial norm breaker, is widely (and correctly) criticized for assaulting America’s democratic norms. But the problem did not begin with Trump. The process of norm erosion started decades ago—long before Trump descended an escalator to announce his presidential candidacy.
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After examining how democratic norms functioned smoothly during most of the 20th century in the U.S., Levitsky and Ziblatt show how they have started to fall apart since the 1960s. The authors repeatedly emphasize that, while Trump’s presidency represented a pressing crisis for American democracy, the crisis neither began with him nor will end when his political career does. Instead, Trump layered an acute crisis on top of a much older, chronic one. Polarization was like the kindling and Trump was like the spark that set it on fire. And troublingly, putting out this fire won’t prevent other, potentially worse Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a des
Chapter 8 Quotes
In many ways, President Trump followed the electoral authoritarian script during his first year. He made efforts to capture the referees, sideline the key players who might halt him, and tilt the playing field. But the president has talked more than he has acted, and his most notorious threats have not been realized. […] President Trump repeatedly scraped up against the guardrails, like a reckless driver, but he did not break through them. Despite clear causes for concern, little actual backsliding occurred in 2017. We did not cross the line into authoritarianism.
It is still early, however. The backsliding of democracy is often gradual, its effects unfolding slowly over time. Comparing Trump’s first year in office to those of other would-be authoritarians, the picture is mixed.
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Writing in 2018, Levitsky and Ziblatt point out that Trump’s earliest authoritarian efforts—like his attempts to bias independent law enforcement agencies, his attacks on the media, and his efforts to spread restrictive voting laws—largely failed. For the most part, democratic norms restrained him and prevented him from acting out his worst instincts. Virtually all Democrats and even some Republicans opposed his policies. However, Levitsky and Ziblatt emphasize that this isn’t as positive a sign as it might seem. Many authoritarian leaders fail to overcome the guardrails in their first year. But the longer they try, the more they chip away Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perfere
Norms are the soft guardrails of democracy; as they break down, the zone of acceptable political behavior expands, giving rise to discourse and action that could imperil democracy. Behavior that was once considered unthinkable in American politics is becoming thinkable. Even if Donald Trump does not break the hard guardrails of our constitutional democracy, he has increased the likelihood that a future president will.
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Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Trump wasn’t only a dangerous president because he wanted to dismantle democracy and rule as an authoritarian. He was also dangerous because he threatened democratic norms, including (but not limited to) toleration and forbearance. Of course, these norms were already declining in the U.S. long before Trump took office. But Levitsky and Ziblatt worry that Trump would greatly accelerate this existing trend and threaten to take the guardrails off democracy completely. Levitsky and Ziblatt’s argument depends on their deeper understanding of how and why democratic norms work. When everyone follows norms and there are strong Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Qu
Chapter 9 Quotes
The third, and in our view, most likely, post-Trump future is one marked by polarization, more departures from unwritten political conventions, and increasing institutional warfare—in other words, democracy without solid guardrails.
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Levitsky and Ziblatt acknowledge that Trump’s presidency could end in a variety of ways, ranging from reinvigorating American democracy to imposing a white nationalist agenda on the United States. But they argue that the most probable outcome is simply “democracy without solid guardrails.” Trump could profoundly weaken U.S. democracy without totally destroying it. It’s perfectly possible for the U.S. to keep getting more polarized and its democratic norms to keep declining. If neither party wins a solid majority, both can turn to increasingly antidemocratic and underhanded tactics to try and win power. At first, neither party would necessarily take over Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi
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Democracy’s Guardrails Symbol Timeline in How Democracies Die
The timeline below shows where the symbol Democracy’s Guardrails appears in How Democracies Die. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: The Guardrails of Democracy
...parties stop seeing each other as legitimate rivals. When these norms erode, politics loses its “guardrails.”
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Chapter 6: The Unwritten Rules of American Politics
In each of these examples, “the guardrails held.” Democratic norms prevailed, keeping the U.S. out of a “death spiral” of intolerance and...
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Chapter 7: The Unraveling
...Court seat. This hasn’t happened once since Reconstruction. In short, the Republicans were taking the guardrails off American democracy.
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Chapter 8: Trump Against the Guardrails
...to those of nine other authoritarians and point out that most didn’t actually dismantle democracy’s guardrails in their first year.
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Chapter 9: Saving Democracy
...most likely, the U.S. might end up in a polarized system of “democracy without solid guardrails.” Levitsky and Ziblatt point to North Carolina as an example of how this would look....
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