Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

In the Introduction, Levitsky and Ziblatt outline the two main goals of their book. Their first goal is to examine the key forces that they argue resulted in the Republican Party turning away from democracy and embracing authoritarianism. The second goal is to provide steps for how to reverse this democratic backslide. To do this, the authors take a historical and contemporary approach. This means that they will draw on lessons from the past, including key historical events in US history like the southern Democratic Party’s authoritarian backlash to post-Civil War Reconstruction, as well as modern-day examples from around the world.

From the beginning, Levitsky and Ziblatt emphasize that the US has proved uniquely prone to democratic backsliding. Around the world, the 2008 financial crisis and the rise of immigration and racial and ethnic diversity led to an increase in anti-democratic forces. However, the US stands apart in two main ways. First, the backlash against growing diversity “has been uniquely authoritarian” (8). The US is the only democratic country where politicians have contested election results and ignored political violence. Second, the authors argue that extremist forces have taken over the Republican Party, one of the two major political parties in the country. In other countries, extremist forces do not typically amass this kind of political power.

Levitsky and Ziblatt begin to explore one of the central themes of their book: The Antiquated Elements of American Democracy make it more susceptible than other established Western democracies to authoritarianism. The US Constitution, which represents the oldest active written constitution in the world, is part of the problem. It is flawed largely because it was written during a pre-democratic era. The US Founding Fathers feared majority rule, “or that the will of the many [would] trample on the rights of the few” (10). As such, they tried to establish a system of governance that would check the power of majorities. These checks led to an unintended consequence: the empowering of partisan minorities.

Levitsky and Ziblatt work hard to develop trust and rapport with their audience, especially given the highly polarized nature of American society. One way the authors do this is to ground their assertions with data points. As one example, the authors assert that the authoritarian backlash in the US was unique. The authors provide data to show that the US should be immune to democratic backsliding. They cite research by two political scientists (Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi) that supports the idea that “rich democracies never die, and old democracies never die” (7). The US is both a wealthy and old democracy. Levitsky and Ziblatt use this research to show how the fact that anti-democratic forces have taken over one of the major political parties in the country makes the US unique among established western democracies.