This is a review I posted about 2 years ago on Goodreads and it seems relevant to current events,
It is by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt whose earlier book “How Democracies Die” I had reviewed about 4 years ago. They are professors of government at Harvard University. They like many other Americans were shocked by the violent insurrection of January 6, 2020.
Coups and violent insurrections happen in some democracies but most of us thought they would not happen here. This book is an attempt to figure out why and how it happened. And, of course, how we can prevented it from happening again.
The answer is complicated and so the authors discuss many things. I think the information was presented well and explained in a way that was easy to follow.
For example, the United States democracy can be usefully compared to other democracies to see how other have address similar problems. To prevent majorities in large states from imposing rules that benefit them at the expense of small states, the founders decided to give all states an equal number of Senators in the Constitution.
This apparent equality leads to situation where California with 39 million residents and Wyoming with less than 600 thousand residents are equally represented in the Senate. To make matters worse the Senate has a filibuster rule where a minority of 41 of 100 Senators can block a bill. So the minority of Senators, often representing a very small percentage of the population can defeat a bill favored by a majority of Senators and a much larger majority of citizens.
The authors call such situations tyranny of the minority or anti-majoritarian institutions.
The Electoral College is another problematic institution. In recent years, it has often resulted in the candidate with fewer votes of the citizens winning the Presidency by winning the most electors.
The authors closed “How Democracies Die” like this:
“Democracy is a shared enterprise. Its fate depends on all of us.”
The authors closed their introduction to “Tyranny of the Minority” like this:
“Our institutions will not save our democracy. We will have to save it ourselves.”
I highly recommend this book. It was interesting, thought provoking, and well written. Importantly, it leads to a better understanding of our government. This understanding is an important step in saving the democratic institutions of our government and attempting to reform those less democratic parts.
