How democracies die

“If twenty-five years ago, someone had described to you a country in which candidates threatened to lock up their rivals, political opponents accused the government of stealing the election or establishing a dictatorship, and parties used their legislative majorities to impeach presidents and steal supreme court seats, you might have thought of Ecuador or Romania, You probably would not have thought of the United States,” write Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two political scientists from Harvard University, in their book, How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future.

Those of us who follow and study the history and the politics of the United States we watched the 2016 presidential election with a sense of disbelief. The night of the election of Donald Trump to the United States Presidency has hit the country and the world like a shock wave. The Americans had elected as their President a man who incited racial hatred, a misogynist who sexually assaults women, someone who mocked a reporter’s disability, vowed to build a wall between the US and Mexico, and declared that he doesn’t believe in climate change. How on earth, did he get elected? Even for the American political culture which is characterized by cynicism and short-term thinking, the election of Donald Trump was an event hard to comprehend.

During the two years of his presidency, the President of United States threatened to lock up his formal rival, and he railed against the media, calling them “the enemy of the people.” Many people think these are just words but Levitsky and Ziblatt think they are hallmarks of authoritarian countries. No other presidential candidate or President of the United States, at least in the 20th century, ever behaved this way. But they recognised other political figures in other countries who eventually became authoritarian leaders, such as Hugo Chavez, Alberto Fujimori, Lucio Gutierrez, behaved this way. They have therefore, developed a set of four behavioural warning signs that can help know an authoritarian when we see one. We should worry when a politician

Rejects in words of action, the democratic rules of the game.
Denies that legitimacy of opponents.
Tolerates or encourages violence, or
Indicates a willingness to curtail the civil liberties of opponents, including the media.

Donald Trump met them all. “No other major political candidate in modern U.S. history, including Nixon, has demonstrated such a weak public commitment to constitutional rights and democratic norms. Trump, they say, was “precisely the kind of figure that had haunted Hamilton and other founders when they created the American presidency.”

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt show how democracies around the world have died, not by coups but gradually by insidiously slide into authoritarianism. And while writing this book they came to realise that American democracy is not as exceptional as we sometimes think. They draw from the knowledge they have and the experiences of other democracies that had to confront authoritarian leaders or countries that they succumb to authoritarianism, to understand the United States’ predicament. Along the way they realized that the problem that the American political system faces today is not just Donald Trump. Donald Trump is rather the symptom of deeper underlining problems in the U.S. political system.

Working on the book they come up with some discoveries. The first discovery is the best way to prevent authoritarianism is to prevent authoritarian demagogues to come to power in the first place. Until 2016, a gatekeeping system could keep extremist demagogues from coming to power in the U.S. The introduction of primaries eroded this gatekeeping system, leading “to the appearance of extremist candidates and demagogues”, who unrestrained from party allegiances, “have little to lose by stirring up mass hatred or making absurd promises.” The second discovery was that the Institution cannot necessarily save the American democracy. Institutions work best when they are reinforced by unwritten norms and rules, and two stand out as fundamental to a functioning democracy: Mutual tolerance and institutional is political forbearance. With the radicalisation of the Republican Party the basic norms of mutual tolerance and forbearance were abandoned and an intense partisan polarization has been felt through the entire American political system. “Democrats and Republicans have become much more than two competing parties, sorted into liberal and conservative camps. Their voters are now deeply divided by race, religious belief, geography and even ‘way of life’.” Extreme polarization can kill democracy.

Is the democracy in the United States terminally ill? There are signs that American democracy is not functioning the way it should; there are lessons to be learn; but the authors hope the American people and politicians can still turn things around.

I was very impressed with the authors’ insightful political analysis and historical research. If you are concern about the future of democracy, you should read this book.