How Democracies Die

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard professors who have spent over twenty years studying democratic breakdowns in Europe and Latin America, examine how democracies fail. Rather than ending through revolution or military coup, democracies now decline gradually through the weakening of institutions like the judiciary and press, and the erosion of political norms. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples—from 1930s Europe to present-day Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, and the American South during Jim Crow—the authors analyze the mechanisms of democratic collapse. They argue that while exit ramps from authoritarianism exist, the United States has already passed the first one. The book explores whether American democracy can be saved and addresses whether democratic institutions face danger today. Winner of the Goldsmith Book Prize and shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, the book was named a best book of the year by The Washington Post, Time, and Foreign Affairs.