I have previously written about this book (Reading now: How Democracies Die). Now that I’ve finished, I think it was even better than my earlier opinion.

The book is How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. It is not a very long book but packs a lot of information into the 231 pages of text. It is very readable book. There is also a fairly long section of endnotes for those interested in further reading or in checking things mentioned in the text.

As I meant to say earlier in my “Reading Now” post but left out a word, The authors cover various international situations where authoritarians ended democracy or failed to do so. Also there is considerable emphasis on President Donald Trump and previous authoritarian events in US history.

There is also considerable discussion of our journey into partisan animosity.

Reading further I also found that some of these declines to authoritarianism and the subsequent recoveries or failures to recover hold lessons for the citizens of the United States.

The best summary of this book comes in the final chapter called “Saving Democracy”.

Comparing our current predicament to democratic crises in other parts of the world and at other moments of history, it becomes clear that America is not so different from other nations. Our constitutional system, while older and more robust than any in history, is vulnerable to the same pathologies that have killed democracy elsewhere. …
Democracy is a shared enterprise. Its fate depends on all of us.

It is a wonderful book which has not gotten the attention it deserves. Highly recommended for anyone interested in our fate as a democracy.