The Reading Room

Living author

Steven Levitsky

1968-

A political scientist of comparative democracy, co-author of two of the most widely read recent books on democratic decline. How Democracies Die argues that democracies now more often erode from within, through elected leaders, than fall to coups. Tyranny of the Minority examines how institutional rules can let a political minority govern against the majority. He studies backsliding as a process with warning signs.

In the library

  • How Democracies Die

    The comparative study of democratic backsliding, and the moment it described has not passed. Levitsky and Ziblatt show that democracies now more often erode from within,...