The Daily Show • Mar 11, 2024 • Harvard University professor Steven Levitsky, co-author of the bestsellers “Tyranny of the Minority” and “How Democracies Die,” joins Jon Stewart to talk about how the Founding Fathers shaped elected democracy through improvisation, the challenge of constitutional reform, and the importance of improving and evolving democratic institutions. #DailyShow#JonStewart#Constitution#Democracy

How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future

Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt

Donald Trump’s presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we’d be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang–in a revolution or military coup–but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.

Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die–and how ours can be saved.

About the author

Steven Levitsky

Steven Levitsky is an American political scientist and Professor of Government at Harvard University. A comparative political scientist, his research interests focus on Latin America and include political parties and party systems, authoritarianism and democratization, and weak and informal institutions.

(Goodreads.com)