How Democracies Die: In a Nutshell

My musings on the book of eponymous name by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt

Though most of the book is dedicated to the rise of Trump and his threat to American democracy, it is a book full of cautionary tales, and eye-opening ideas.

A key idea of the book is that democracies do not necessarily (and mostly no longer) die in a spectacular blaze (of bombs and bullets), but go in quiet revolutions. Political outsiders gain popular support by posing as harbingers of change, promising deliverance from the vices of the existing order to an increasingly frustrated people. The need of the hour.

The main takeaway for me is the litmus test proposed by the authors. They use the test to judge the authoritarian nature of candidates and office bearers across various countries in Latin America, Asia and Europe. In our times where we’re served propaganda as news, this an early warning system of sorts, is immensely helpful. Here’s the essence:

• Outright rejection of or weak commitment to democratic rules (of the game).
• Denying the legitimacy of political opponents.
• Tolerance or encouragement of violence.
• Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents (including the media).

These indicators feel uncomfortably familiar to me (and I’m sure to my peers as well) living in Modi’s India. Instances that can be neatly shelved in one of these bins grow by the day.