How Democracies Die

Regime change and authoritarian takeover may be equated with violence and soldiers in the street in the popular imagination, but in How Democracies Die, an important theme is how this process can happen almost imperceptibly—and indeed, has happened legally in many of the democratic breakdowns of the 20th century. According to Levitsky and Ziblatt, “Democratic backsliding today begins at the ballot box” (5). This theme both structures the text and serves as a justifying principle for the text itself, since the subtle nature of contemporary authoritarianism requires citizens to educate themselves on the threat by studying the kinds of examples the authors put forward.

The theme of gradual democratic decline provides the context for the authors’ discussion of another imperceptible, but important, piece of the democratic puzzle: the unwritten norms that govern democracies. The norms of mutual toleration and institutional forbearance, in particular, are what make democracies possible, allowing for the orderly transition of power between political rivals and the independent functioning of other branches of government, such as the judiciary. Throughout the book the authors show how, as these norms are undermined, democracy itself starts to fall apart, even as institutions like elections and courts continue to function.