NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A call to reform our antiquated political institutions before it’s
too late—from the authors of How Democracies Die “[Levitsky and Ziblatt] write with
terrifying clarity about how the forces of the right have co-opted the enshrined rules to exert
their tyranny.”— The Washington Post ONE OF THE CALIFORNIA REVIEW OF BOOKS ’ TEN BEST BOOKS
OF THE YEAR • A NEWSWEEK BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR America is undergoing a massive experiment: It
is moving in fits and starts toward a multiracial democracy something few societies have
ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the
very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here and not in other
wealthy diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it? With the clarity and brilliance
that made their first book How Democracies Die a global bestseller Harvard professors Steven
Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a coherent framework for understanding these volatile times.
They draw on a wealth of examples—from 1930s France to present-day Thailand—to explain why and
how political parties turn against democracy. They then show how our Constitution makes us
uniquely vulnerable to attacks from within: It is a pernicious enabler of minority rule
allowing partisan minorities to consistently thwart and even rule over popular majorities. Most
modern democracies—from Germany and Sweden to Argentina and New Zealand—have eliminated
outdated institutions like elite upper chambers indirect elections and lifetime tenure for
judges. The United States lags dangerously behind. In this revelatory book Levitsky and
Ziblatt issue an urgent call to reform our politics. It’s a daunting task but we have remade
our country before—most notably after the Civil War and during the Progressive Era. And now we
are at a crossroads: America will either become a multiracial democracy or cease to be a
democracy at all.
