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Tyranny of the minority : why American democracy reached the breaking point / Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt.

by Levitsky, Steven.

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Representative government and representation -- United States.

Democracy -- Social aspects -- United States.

United States -- Politics and government -- 21st century.

9780593443071 (hc.)

368 p. ; 22 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-343) and index.

"A call to reform our antiquated political institutions before it's too late. America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it? Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a framework for understanding these volatile times. They draw on examples --from 1930s France to present-day Thailand -- to explain why and how political parties turn against democracy. They then show how our Constitution makes us uniquely vulnerable to attacks from within: It is a pernicious enabler of minority rule, allowing partisan minorities to consistently thwart and even rule over popular majorities. Most modern democracies -- from Germany and Sweden to Argentina and New Zealand -- have eliminated outdated institutions like elite upper chambers, indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges. The United States lags dangerously behind. Levitsky and Ziblatt issue an urgent call to perfect our national experiment."--From publisher.

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt are professors of government at Harvard University and the authors of the New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, which won the Goldsmith Book Prize, was shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize, and was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Time, and Foreign Affairs

Ziblatt, Daniel, 1972-

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