How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky

How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future by Steven Levitsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

People should probably read this. For me, it was really boring at the beginning. It set up a framework for analyzing American politics with 4 rules of waning democracy and lots of historical examples. But it didn't get to the main point of the book, the risk to American democracy, until the last third of the book. It really tests the patience of the most sympathetic reader.

It's not a partisan book, per se. When it finally gets to the American examples it cites Republican and Democratic sins against democracy. (You might notice though that the Republican examples are more numerous and extreme.) Instead, it focuses on our joint obligation to protect democracy by working in a healthy bipartisan way even when we don't agree on policy. However, the author fails to explain how we're supposed to maintain civility when one party is extremist, trying to steal democracy in such blatant, economically-disempowering, and racist ways. Literally, the world is being destroyed by human-caused climate change, and we're not supposed to speak or act like it is not apocalyptic, even though it is likely apocalyptic? I understand that civil rights were won by saintly forbearance in the face of harsh violent oppressors, but every time this happens lots of people literally die. And with broken healthcare in our country and the rise in climate disasters, the numbers of deaths are virtually unlimited.

The main solutions it offers are the Republicans getting control over its own party again, and liberals focusing on economic policy. Apparently, the Republican leadership has less control over its members than large donors (like the Koch brothers and the NRA) and Fox News. The author doesn't even talk about how Supreme Court rulings have made this virtually impossible. The main thing liberals can do is focus on economic policy and assisting the middle class again. We should focus on reducing income inequality and family policies to help everyone. Which we were already trying to do. Feeling... screwed.

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