Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Summary

The U.S. is less democratic than other established democracies in the world. Steven Levitsky discusses how structural reform is necessary to put the US on par with other democracies. However, given the US’s unusual number of counter-majoritarian institutions and the world’s hardest constitution to reform, institutional reform will not happen before the 2024 election. What American democracy urgently needs is a newfound commitment to democracy in the form of a broad coalition, including everyone from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez to Liz Cheney, from political junkies to business and religious leaders.    

Steven Levitsky is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government at Harvard University, director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard, and a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation. His research focuses on democracy and authoritarianism. He and Daniel Ziblatt are authors of How Democracies Die (2018), which was a New York Times bestseller, and Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point (2023).
Links:

Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/706046/tyranny-of-the-minority-by-steven-levitsky-and-daniel-ziblatt/

How Democracies Die
https://crownpublishing.com/archives/feature/democracies-die-steven-levitsky-daniel-ziblatt

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The Charles F. Kettering Foundation (https://www.kettering.orghttps://www.kettering.org) works to inspire and connect individuals and organizations to advance thriving and inclusive democracies around the globe. We believe all people belong and have the right to engage in and shape a democracy that serves them.