You can use your Peninsula Library System card to borrow titles from these partner libraries:
Tyranny of the Minority
Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
0 of 1 copy available
“[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 Most modern democracies—from Germany and Sweden to Argentina and New Zealand—have eliminated outdated institutions like elite upper chambers, indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges.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.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
September 12, 2023 -
Formats
-
Kindle Book
-
OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780593443088
-
EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780593443088
- File size: 1305 KB
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
May 1, 2023
The United States appears to be on its way to becoming a multiracial democracy, but will it make it? Harvard professors Levitsky and Ziblatt aren't sure, pointing out that unlike other modern democracies (e.g., Germany, Argentina, and New Zealand), it has retained outmoded institutions like elite upper chambers, indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges that perpetuate minority rule. Without correctives, the nation could cease to be a democracy altogether. Following the New York Times best-selling How Democracies Die. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2023 Library Journal
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
-
July 15, 2023
Chilling study of how recent political turmoil demonstrates that, "far from checking authoritarian power, our institutions have begun to augment it." "The assault on American democracy was worse than anything we anticipated in 2017, when we were writing our first book, How Democracies Die." So write Levitsky and Ziblatt, both professors of government at Harvard. While the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol provides a clear flashpoint, the authors weave a complex discussion, illuminating fault lines in the delicate nature of democracy that the Trump presidency (and its enablers) blatantly exploited. "The republic did not collapse between 2016 and 2021," they write, "but it became undeniably less democratic." The authors bolster their wide-ranging narrative with geopolitical and historical examples and informed analyses of the intricate mechanisms of governance. "Most twenty-first-century autocracies are built via constitutional hardball," they write. "Democratic backsliding occurs gradually." Compromised politicians propel it by amplifying the dangerous ideas of extremists. Levitsky and Ziblatt emphasize that democracies must become multiracial to survive, explaining America's fitful progress since Reconstruction. "Without federal protection of voting rights," they write, "any semblance of democracy in the South was soon extinguished...the South succumbed to nearly a century of authoritarianism." In the 1960s, civil rights legislation "establish[ed] a legal foundation for multiracial democracy," which Republicans largely supported. Now, the same party embraces racial grievances and electoral lies and endorses violence, demonstrated in the aftermath of Jan. 6: "Most Republican leaders acted as semi-loyal democrats. They professed to play by democratic rules but in reality enabled authoritarian behavior." The authors conclude by advocating for potential reforms, including prosecution of antidemocratic forces and promotion of voting rights. They also urge optimism even as they gloomily warn that "the mapping of the partisan divide onto the urban-rural divide risks converting some of our most important institutions into pillars of minority rule." A well-organized and convincing argument, although procedural minutiae occasionally dilute otherwise passionate writing.COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-