My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Liberal democracy is far more fragile than most Americans think. It is more likely to deteriorate into dictatorship than stay strong. This is a fact that political scientists have been researching for some time now, but with the election of Donald Trump in 2016, books about this topic with a popular audience in mind have been written, bringing that research to a wider audience. This book is one of most clearly written and readable about how democracies can fall.
Using recent historic examples and easy to understand language, charts, and evidence, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how the soft guardrails of democracy, or democratic norms as they are more commonly known, can be eroded over time and how authoritarian figures can rise to completely subvert the system. But what may be most shocking to Americans is how the authors trace America's own erosion of democratic norms since the late 1970s. As has been said by commentators since 2016, Donald Trump is not the cause of the mess we're in, he is just the result of recent decades of norm destruction by both Republicans and Democrats (though, the authors argue, mostly Republicans). They also show how political leaders can make serious mistakes in evaluating potential authoritarian figures or even ally with them for short-term partisan gain, thus damaging the democratic system in general. For a general audience, it may be shocking just how easy it is for democratic governments to fall.
The main reason for this book to exist is because of Donal Trump's 2016 election. Levitsky and Ziblatt show, convincingly in my opinion, how Pres. Trump matches the profile for a potential authoritarian figure and how his unprecedented administration fits the model of authoritarianism in the making. This makes this book an important read for the present moment, but I suspect that their assault on Pres. Trump means that rank and file Republicans, the ones who need this message the most, will be less likely to read it. It also means that, should the country make it out of this long national nightmare, that this book may not have as much staying power in the minds of the public as it should. Democracy is a fragile system and Americans need to constantly remember just how fragile it is. We need books like this, but I fear that, because it is a book very much of its time and place, it will not stick around in the public mind should Pres. Trump be unelected or removed from office.
Despite its potential lack of staying power, this book is an incredibly important read for our current political times. It also includes some important suggestions throughout about how to keep democracy safe that all Americans, Republicans and Democrats, should take to heart. I highly recommend this to anyone who is worried about the state of politics in America today.
No comments:
Post a Comment