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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