How Democracies Die
by Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt · first published 2017
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Accessible, example-rich look at how democracies erode, with comparisons across countries that fell into authoritarianism and ones that held on; suited to readers new to politics and history who want a framework.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Mutual tolerance and institutional forbearance are two unwritten democratic norms crucial for a healthy and stable democracy. Coined by Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt in their 2018 book How Democracies Die, they are considered essential "soft guardrails" that reinforce a country's constitutional rules. Mutual tolerance Mutual tolerance is the shared understanding that political rivals are legitimate and loyal citizens with an equal right to exist, compete for power, and govern. It is the willingness of politicians and the public to accept that opponents are
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Since you are reading why nations fail I would like to recommend a pairing. How democracies die by Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky. The central thesis here is parties are the gatekeepers of democracies and when they put party before nation they erode the democracy that eventually fails. More…
on “It’s Time to Build” ↗…accountability. Even though they are messy, they are what we need to apply here because they are a legally binding framework that we built over decades. By the way, I found Levitski and Ziblatt's book "How Democracies Die" [1] a pretty good treatment of these issues of balancing freedom of expression and democratic resilience. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die
on “The FBI alleges TikTok poses national security concerns” ↗In no particular order: - Factfulness by Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund - How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt - The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis - Conspiracy by Ryan Holiday - X by Chuck Klosterman
on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗- The Mysterium: David Bramwell, Jo Keeling - Digital Minimalism: Cal Newport - How Democracies Die: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt - How to Disappear: Akiko Bush - Bullshit Jobs: David Graeber - Its basic Income: Amy Downes and Stewart Lansley - Utopia for Realists: Rutger Bergman - Human Rigths…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?” ↗I found How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt to be very accessible for a politics/history noob like me. It contains a bunch of examples from all over the world of countries that either fell out of democracy…
on “Ask HN: Best Books on History and Politics?” ↗Yes, and if you read https://www.amazon.com/How-Democracies-Die-Steven-Levitsky/d... you'll realize that once democratic norms have broken down on both sides of the aisle, the next thing that happens is the replacement of democracy by a totalitarian state.
on “The Most Dangerous Censorship” ↗…War so as pessimistic as I am I'd be very surprised if things got as far as a civil war within the next decade. I wouldn't rule out a serious constitutional crisis though. EDIT: I'd highly recommend How Democracies Die, The Revolt of the Public, and Why We're Polarized for understanding the current circumstances.
on “Half of Americans anticipate a U.S. civil war soon” ↗There is a good section on this in the book How Democracies Die where they go into detail as to why fascists could not come to power in America before Donald Trump. Basically their argument was that the party structures performed gatekeeping functions and that populists…
on “When radio was king, many outlets chose to stop broadcasting Father Coughlin” ↗…(i.e. totalitarian but defensive) and no state regulation (i.e. completely free speech but vulnerable). The US is very liberal. Most European countries are leaning towards regulation. See the book "How Democracies Die" for a summary of the three most prominent legal approaches.
on “Disinformation-for-hire in Kenya” ↗…restrictive attitudes were not supported. Finally, it is immensenly important to remember that countries must pick one of roughly three approaches to dealing with harmful political attitudes (see Ziblatt's "How Democracies Die" for a longer review of this): - Have all attitudes compete equally (this is the US model of free speech) - Contain bad attitudes by shunning them and rendering them a taboo - Exclude bad attitudes…
on ““Roughly one-third of students are in favor of banning controversial books”” ↗The problem with "nobody gets anything" is that it's unworkable in the long run and sooner or later someone decides to just ignore the rules with popular support. See How Democracies Die for a book length treatment but I believe that's an uncontroversial statement about the political science consensus. I'm not saying it's temperance that keeps the US together (except for the first 8…
on “US shutdown: Flight delays caused by staff shortages” ↗…https://www.democracynow.org/2023/4/19/clarence_thomas_abe_f... [1] https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/594574-mcconnells-unco... [2] https://rollcall.com/2020/10/30/mcconnell-senate-judges-lame... [3] refer to the book "How Democracies Die" by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
on “US Supreme Court Justices get lavish gifts; Raise bar for bribery prosecutions” ↗Thanks for the clarification. The issues with vetting of nominees was also one of the factors Levitsky and Ziblatt identified in: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/306746/how-democracies-die-b... These are also global issues; because parties are doing poor job and media is lacking behind, people often elect candidates with harsh criminal records, known links to extremist organizations, or…
on “Congressman George Santos Charged with Fraud, Money Laundering and More” ↗…not, IIRC, have term limits and that seems to work fine for them. So maybe being able to remove term limits is a symptom more than a cause? Either way, questions like these are discussed in the book How Democracies Die, which has been recommended to me and is on my re-read list, but which I haven't gotten to yet.
on “Jack Ma makes first live appearance in three months in online meet” ↗Plan to read again: - How Democracies Die https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die - The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Third...
on “Ask HN: Books you plan to read in 2020?” ↗