Politics

Is democracy dying? Is America sliding into authoritarianism? What can be done to salvage democratic norms? According to Levitsky and Ziblatt, the authors of How Democracies Die, democracy operated successfully throughout most of the 20th century, despite some challenges. But, they warn, democratic norms are under siege today and may be slipping away entirely. In this article, we’ll explore some key structural transformations in United States politics over the past few decades that are pushing democratic norms to the brink.

Can American democracy be salvaged? What can be done to save the country from democratic decay? According to Levitsky and Ziblatt, the authors of How Democracies Die, democracy is a shared enterprise in which all participate together. The key to preserving democracy, they argue, is to transcend the partisan divide. To this end, they propose some reforms that can help rescue and strengthen it. In this article, we’ll discuss what can be done to save democracy in America, according to Levitsky and Ziblatt.

What is asymmetric polarization? Why are the political parties becoming increasingly polarized in America? Asymmetric polarization is where one party becomes more extreme than the other in its political stance. In their book How Democracies Die, Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that growing asymmetric polarization in American politics is due to two factors: 1) the power of conservative interest groups, and 2) the cultural homogeneity of the party’s base. We’ll discuss both of these factors below.