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How Democracies Die

How Democracies Die is a book on politics and political theory by Harvard University Professors, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt which was published in 2018. 

How Democracies Die by Steven & Daniel

It says that in our time, democracies will die, less at the hands of men with guns and more by elected leaders. It tells us how elected leaders can  gradually subvert democratic processes to increase their power, weaken and finally kill democracy.

For examples, many elected leaders have subverted democratic and independent institutions in  many countries around the world. 'Autocratic tendencies in  elected autocrats.' Such leaders maintain a veneer of democracy while subverting its substance. 

In such countries, citizens  who criticize the government  may often find themselves facing tax raids or other legal troubles. Their criticism may be dismissed as exaggerating. Further, a large number  of citizens may believe that they are living  under a democratic regime. 


These elected leaders subvert  democracy  by packing courts  and other agencies by their own men and women,  buying off or bullying media and the private sector and rewriting rules of politics  to tilt the playing field against opponents. Democracy ends  with  a whimper  in the slow  but steady  weakening of the democratic institutions, and the gradual erosion  of long standing political norms.

 In the last chapter  of the book entitled ‘ Saving Democracy, the authors tell the way out. We must not only restore  democratic norms but extend  them through the whole of  increasing diverse societies  .. . This is the challenge that we face. In other words , we must restore shared beliefs and practices –beyond formal constitution- that constitute the essential ‘guardrails’ for  preserving democracy.

Political parties are democracy’s gatekeepers and can  keep extremist demagogues  from gaining power by denying them party tickets, refusing to endorse or align with them and if necessary, even  making a common cause with rivals.

What Democracy Pertains

 I have found this book  accessible, compelling and extremely relevant in present times of what's happening in African countries at large and East African countries in particular. I recommend it highly to citizens of all democracies of the world   to read  it and , if possible , to act  upon its recommendations.

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