How Democracies Die, Levitsky and Ziblatt

 

How Democracies Die:  What history reveals about our future by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.  What happens with a couple of Harvard professors start thinking about the political future?

Started: 1/8/2022
Completed: 1/14/2022
Recommendation: Mild Recommendation
Recommended By: Nobody

Review:

This is an interesting book talking about some of the criteria that can be used to identify a democracy at risk.  The fact that Trump pushed all the buttons while the book was being written and the advice was that the Republican party should reform itself and the Democratic party should provide space for that is remarkably difficult to follow.  The Republican party has been the primary abusers of democracy and started the abuses (by the authors' own analysis).  The thought that the Democratic party should just move to the side and hope that the Republican party decides to reform is hard to fathom.  As long as the Republican party is getting what they want with the current process, they will continue to work the way that they are.  I recommend this book for the analysis, but not the conclusions.