Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt are Professors of Government at Harvard University. Levitsky's research focuses on Latin America and the developing world. He is the author of Competitive Authoritarianism and is the recipient of numerous teaching awards. Ziblatt studies Europe from the nineteenth century to the present. He is the author, most recently, of Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy. Both Levitsky and Ziblatt have written for Vox and The New York Times, among other publications.
Winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize
Shortlisted for the 2019 Lionel Gelber Prize A Washington Post
Notable Nonfiction Book of 2018
A Time Best Nonfiction Book of 2018
A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2018
A WBUR Best Book of 2018
A Paste Best Nonfiction Book of 2018
A New York Times Book Review Best Book Cover of 2018
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "The best
death-of-democracy book I read in 2018."
--Carlos Lozada, Washington Post "Levitsky and Ziblatt show how
democracies have collapsed elsewhere--not just through violent
coups, but more commonly (and insidiously) through a gradual slide
into authoritarianism.... How Democracies Die is a lucid and
essential guide to what can happen here."
--New York Times "If you want to understand what's happening to our
country, the book you really need to read is How Democracies
Die."
--Paul Krugman "The defining political book, so far, of 2018."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
"We're already awash in public indignation--what we desperately
need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of
affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most
respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just
that."
--The Washington Post "Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark
is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of
both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so,
they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other
countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and
politics."
--Ezra Klein, Vox "Fair warning: reading Levitsky and Ziblatt will
leave you very, very unsettled. They make a powerful case that we
really and truly are in uncharted territory, living in a moment
when the line between difficult times and dark times has
blurred."
--Washington Monthly "If you only read one book for the rest of the
year, read How Democracies Die... This is not a book for just
Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is
nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history...
the best commentary on our politics, no contest."
--Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (via Twitter)
"A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy
is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in
ways that are perfectly legal."
--Fareed Zakaria, CNN "Carefully researched and persuasive... the
authors show the fragility of even the best democracies and also
caution politicians... who think they can somehow co-opt autocrats
without getting burned.... How Democracies Die provides a guide for
Americans of all political persuasions for what to avoid."
--USA Today
"Scholarly and readable, alarming and level-headed... the greatest
of the many merits of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt's
contribution to what will doubtless be the ballooning discipline of
democracy death studies is their rejection of western
exceptionalism. There are no vaccines in American (or, I would add,
British) culture that protects us: just ways of doing business that
now feel decrepit."
--The Guardian "[An] important new book."
--Nicholas Kristof, New York Times "The political-science text in
vogue this winter is How Democracies Die."
--The New Yorker "How Democracies Die studies the modern history of
apparently healthy democracies that have slid into autocracy. It is
hard to read this fine book without coming away terribly concerned
about the possibility Trump might inflict a mortal wound on the
health of the republic.... It is simplistic to expect boots
marching in the streets, but there will be a battle for
democracy."
--Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine "The great strength of Levitsky
and Ziblatt's How Democracies Die is that it rejects the
exceptionalist account of US democracy. Their lens is comparative.
The authors say America is not immune to the trends that have led
to democracy's collapse in other parts of the world."
--Financial Times "A powerful wake-up call."
--Foreign Affairs "The big advantage of political scientists over
even the shrewdest and luckiest of eavesdropping journalists is
that they have the training to give us a bigger picture....
[Levitsky and Ziblatt] bring to bear useful global and historical
context... [showing] the mistakes democratic politicians make as
they let dangerous demagogues into the heart of power."
--The Sunday Times "If this were fiction, the thrills of this book
would remind you of the thrills you had when you first read 1984,
It Can't Happen Here, The Plot Against America and The Handmaid's
Tale. If this were fiction, you could lie in the sand and enjoy the
read. But this book is not fiction. And this book is not just about
the past. And this book is not just about other countries. [It]
should be on your reading list this summer."
--Tufts Now "The authors argue, with good evidence, that
democracies aren't destroyed because of the impulses of a single
man; they are, instead, degraded in the course of a partisan
tit-for-tat dynamic that degrades norms over time until one side
sees an opening to deliver the death blow. Donald Trump is not a
dictator. But it's impossible to read How Democracies Die without
worrying that our collective decay of democratic norms may open the
door to one down the line--perhaps even one of an entirely
different ideological persuasion."
--Wall Street Journal "Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer one
of the best forensic accounts available of the crimes against
democracy in America.... The diagnosis is compelling, and their
book is essential, even compulsive, reading."
--Survival: Global Politics and Strategy "[How Democracies Die] is
a stellar deep-dive into a series of modern democracies that ceased
to be."
--Daily Kos
"Maybe have a drink before digging into this one. Levitsky and
Ziblatt trace the fall of democracies throughout history with
agonizing clarity, going right up to our current perilous
moment."
--Entertainment Weekly "Levitsky and Ziblatt are not entirely
pessimistic... but they leave readers in no doubt that they should
be worried about the state of American democracy."
--Slate
"Chilling... A provocative analysis of the parallels between Donald
Trump's ascent and the fall of other democracies."
--Kirkus Reviews "Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have offered a
brilliant diagnosis of the most important issue facing our world:
Can democracy survive? With clinical precision and an extraordinary
grasp of history, they point to the warning signs of decay and
define the obligations of those who would preserve free government.
If there is an urgent book for you to read at this moment, it is
How Democracies Die."
--E.J. Dionne Jr., co-author of One Nation After Trump "Levitsky
and Ziblatt are leading scholars of democracy in other parts of the
world, who with great energy and integrity now apply their
expertise to the current problems of the United States. The reader
feels the intellectual excitement, and also the political warning,
as the authors draw the connections from their own vast knowledge
to the chaos that we experience each day."
--Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny
"We live in perilous times. Anyone who is concerned about the
future of American democracy should read this brisk, accessible
book. Anyone who is not concerned should definitely read it."
--Daron Acemoglu, co-author of Why Nations Fail "Readers will not
find an anti-Trump screed in How Democracies Die. The book is more
erudite than alarmist... but that makes [Levitsky and Ziblatt's]
clarity on the risk of both Trump and wider political developments
all the more powerful."
--California magazine "All Americans who care about the future of
their country should read this magisterial, compelling book, which
sweeps across the globe and through history to analyze how
democracies die. The result is an unforgettable framework for
diagnosing the state of affairs here at home and our prospects for
recovery."
--Danielle Allen, author of Our Declaration and Cuz
"Two years ago, a book like this could not have been written: two
leading political scientists who are expert in the breakdown of
democracy in other parts of the world using that knowledge to
inform Americans of the dangers their democracy faces today. We owe
the authors a debt of thanks for bringing their deep understanding
to bear on the central political issue of the day."
--Francis Fukuyama, author of Political Order and Political Decay
"In this brilliant historical synthesis, Levitsky and Ziblatt show
how the actions of elected leaders around the world have paved the
road to democratic failure, and why the United States is now
vulnerable to this same downward spiral. This book should be widely
and urgently read as a clarion call to restore the shared beliefs
and practices--beyond our formal constitution--that constitute the
essential 'guardrails' for preserving democracy."
--Larry Diamond, author of The Spirit of Democracy "Thorough and
well-argued... the biggest strength of How Democracies Die is its
bluntness of language in describing American history--a bluntness
that often goes missing when we discuss our own past."
--Pacific Standard
"Required reading for every American... [How Democracies Die] shows
the daily slings and arrows that can gradually crush our liberties,
without the drama of a revolution or a military coup."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer
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