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Why the world's most resilient dictatorships are products of violent revolution
Revolution and Dictatorship explores why dictatorships born of social revolution--such as those in China, Cuba, Iran, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam--are extraordinarily durable, even in the face of economic crisis, large-scale policy failure, mass discontent, and intense external pressure. Few other modern autocracies have survived in the face of such extreme challenges. Drawing on comparative historical analysis, Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way argue that radical efforts to transform the social and geopolitical order trigger intense counterrevolutionary conflict, which initially threatens regime survival, but ultimately fosters the unity and state-building that supports authoritarianism. Although most revolutionary governments begin weak, they challenge powerful domestic and foreign actors, often bringing about civil or external wars. These counterrevolutionary wars pose a threat that can destroy new regimes, as in the cases of Afghanistan and Cambodia. Among regimes that survive, however, prolonged conflicts give rise to a cohesive ruling elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus. This leads to the downfall of rival organizations and alternative centers of power, such as armies, churches, monarchies, and landowners, and helps to inoculate revolutionary regimes against elite defection, military coups, and mass protest--three principal sources of authoritarian breakdown. Looking at a range of revolutionary and nonrevolutionary regimes from across the globe, Revolution and Dictatorship shows why governments that emerge from violent conflict endure.
Cómo la democracia se ve trastornada por los populismos y qué vías hay para salvarla.
Un análisis alarmante que es también una guía para reparar una democracia amenazada por el populismo.La aparición de distintos ejemplos de populismo en diferentes partes del mundo ha hecho salir a la luz una pregunta que nadie se planteaba unos años atrás: están nuestras democracias en peligro? Los profesores Steven Levitsky y Daniel Ziblatt, de la Universidad de Harvard, han invertido dos décadas en el estudio de la caída de varias democracias en Europa y Latinoamérica, y creen que la respuesta a esa pregunta es que sí.
Con un recorrido que abarca desde la dictadura de Pinochet en Chile hasta el discreto y paulatino desgaste del sistema constitucional turco por parte de Erdogan, los autores muestran cómo han desaparecido diversas democracias y qué podemos hacer para salvar la nuestra. Porque la democracia ya no termina con un bang (un golpe militar o una revolución), sino con un leve quejido: el lento y progresivo debilitamiento de las instituciones esenciales, como son el sistema jurídico o la prensa, y la erosión global de las normas políticas tradicionales. La buena noticia es que hay opciones de salida en el camino hacia el autoritarismo y los populismos de diversa índole.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Comprehensive, enlightening, and terrifyingly timely.--The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
WINNER OF THE GOLDSMITH BOOK PRIZE SHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post - Time - Foreign Affairs - WBUR - Paste
Donald Trump's presidency has raised a question that many of us never thought we'd be asking: Is our democracy in danger? Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt have spent more than twenty years studying the breakdown of democracies in Europe and Latin America, and they believe the answer is yes. Democracy no longer ends with a bang--in a revolution or military coup--but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.
Drawing on decades of research and a wide range of historical and global examples, from 1930s Europe to contemporary Hungary, Turkey, and Venezuela, to the American South during Jim Crow, Levitsky and Ziblatt show how democracies die--and how ours can be saved.
Praise for How Democracies Die
What we desperately need is a sober, dispassionate look at the current state of affairs. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, two of the most respected scholars in the field of democracy studies, offer just that.--The Washington Post
Where Levitsky and Ziblatt make their mark is in weaving together political science and historical analysis of both domestic and international democratic crises; in doing so, they expand the conversation beyond Trump and before him, to other countries and to the deep structure of American democracy and politics.--Ezra Klein, Vox
If you only read one book for the rest of the year, read How Democracies Die. . . .This is not a book for just Democrats or Republicans. It is a book for all Americans. It is nonpartisan. It is fact based. It is deeply rooted in history. . . . The best commentary on our politics, no contest.--Michael Morrell, former Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (via Twitter)
A smart and deeply informed book about the ways in which democracy is being undermined in dozens of countries around the world, and in ways that are perfectly legal.--Fareed Zakaria, CNN
Why the world's most resilient dictatorships are products of violent revolution
Revolution and Dictatorship explores why dictatorships born of social revolution--such as those in China, Cuba, Iran, the Soviet Union, and Vietnam--are extraordinarily durable, even in the face of economic crisis, large-scale policy failure, mass discontent, and intense external pressure. Few other modern autocracies have survived in the face of such extreme challenges. Drawing on comparative historical analysis, Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way argue that radical efforts to transform the social and geopolitical order trigger intense counterrevolutionary conflict, which initially threatens regime survival, but ultimately fosters the unity and state-building that supports authoritarianism. Although most revolutionary governments begin weak, they challenge powerful domestic and foreign actors, often bringing about civil or external wars. These counterrevolutionary wars pose a threat that can destroy new regimes, as in the cases of Afghanistan and Cambodia. Among regimes that survive, however, prolonged conflicts give rise to a cohesive ruling elite and a powerful and loyal coercive apparatus. This leads to the downfall of rival organizations and alternative centers of power, such as armies, churches, monarchies, and landowners, and helps to inoculate revolutionary regimes against elite defection, military coups, and mass protest--three principal sources of authoritarian breakdown. Looking at a range of revolutionary and nonrevolutionary regimes from across the globe, Revolution and Dictatorship shows why governments that emerge from violent conflict endure.
Un llamado a reformar las instituciones democráticas tradicionales para frenar los regímenes autoritarios contemporáneos.
Estamos atravesando una época convulsa en la que la gobernanza neoliberal, el ascenso generalizado de la extrema derecha, la política de bloques, y otras formas de autocracia se están imponiendo en diferentes latitudes del planeta. Steven Levitsky y Daniel Ziblatt ofrecen aquí un marco teórico coherente y aportan ejemplos de todo el mundo para comprender el giro autoritario generalizado y explicar cómo los partidos políticos se vuelven contra la democracia. A partir del caso estadounidense y mostrando la evolución de otros países en la consecución de mejoras y reformas para la sociedad y las libertades civiles, los aclamados profesores de Harvard proponen una serie de reformas con las que salir de una espiral de crisis y constituir lo que ellos llaman la única democracia factible. Un libro necesario, legible y convincente.
ENGLISH DESCRIPTION
Un llamado a reformar las instituciones democráticas tradicionales para frenar los regímenes autoritarios contemporáneos.
We are going through a turbulent time in which neoliberal governance, the widespread rise of the extreme right, bloc politics, and other forms of autocracy are being imposed in different latitudes of the planet. Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a coherent theoretical framework here and provide examples from around the world to understand the widespread authoritarian turn and explain how political parties turn against democracy. Based on the case of the United States and showing the evolution of other countries in achieving improvements and reforms for society and civil liberties, the acclaimed Harvard professors propose a series of reforms with which to get of a spiral of crisis and constitute what they call the only feasible democracy. A necessary, readable and convincing book.
Latin America experienced an unprecedented wave of left-leaning governments between 1998 and 2010. This volume examines the causes of this leftward turn and the consequences it carries for the region in the twenty-first century.
The Resurgence of the Latin American Left asks three central questions: Why have left-wing parties and candidates flourished in Latin America? How have these leftist parties governed, particularly in terms of social and economic policy? What effects has the rise of the Left had on democracy and development in the region? The book addresses these questions through two sections. The first looks at several major themes regarding the contemporary Latin American Left, including whether Latin American public opinion actually shifted leftward in the 2000s, why the Left won in some countries but not in others, and how the left turn has affected market economies, social welfare, popular participation in politics, and citizenship rights. The second section examines social and economic policy and regime trajectories in eight cases: those of leftist governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela, as well as that of a historically populist party that governed on the right in Peru.
Featuring a new typology of Left parties in Latin America, an original framework for identifying and categorizing variation among these governments, and contributions from prominent and influential scholars of Latin American politics, this historical-institutional approach to understanding the region's left turn--and variation within it--is the most comprehensive explanation to date on the topic.
During the 1990s Argentina was the only country in Latin America to combine radical economic reform and full democracy. In 2001, however, the country fell into a deep political and economic crisis and was widely seen as a basket case. This book explores both developments, examining the links between the (real and apparent) successes of the 1990s and the 2001 collapse. Specific topics include economic policymaking and reform, executive-legislative relations, the judiciary, federalism, political parties and the party system, and new patterns of social protest.
Beyond its empirical analysis, the book contributes to several theoretical debates in comparative politics. Contemporary studies of political institutions focus almost exclusively on institutional design, neglecting issues of enforcement and stability. Yet a major problem in much of Latin America is that institutions of diverse types have often failed to take root.
Besides examining the effects of institutional weakness, the book also uses the Argentine case to shed light on four other areas of current debate: tensions between radical economic reform and democracy; political parties and contemporary crises of representation; links between subnational and national politics; and the transformation of state-society relations in the post-corporatist era.
Besides the editors, the contributors are Javier Auyero, Ernesto Calvo, Kent Eaton, Sebastián Etchemendy, Gretchen Helmke, Wonjae Hwang, Mark Jones, Enrique Peruzzotti, Pablo T. Spiller, Mariano Tommasi, and Juan Carlos Torre.
Latin America experienced an unprecedented wave of left-leaning governments between 1998 and 2010. This volume examines the causes of this leftward turn and the consequences it carries for the region in the twenty-first century.
The Resurgence of the Latin American Left asks three central questions: Why have left-wing parties and candidates flourished in Latin America? How have these leftist parties governed, particularly in terms of social and economic policy? What effects has the rise of the Left had on democracy and development in the region? The book addresses these questions through two sections. The first looks at several major themes regarding the contemporary Latin American Left, including whether Latin American public opinion actually shifted leftward in the 2000s, why the Left won in some countries but not in others, and how the left turn has affected market economies, social welfare, popular participation in politics, and citizenship rights. The second section examines social and economic policy and regime trajectories in eight cases: those of leftist governments in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela, as well as that of a historically populist party that governed on the right in Peru.
Featuring a new typology of Left parties in Latin America, an original framework for identifying and categorizing variation among these governments, and contributions from prominent and influential scholars of Latin American politics, this historical-institutional approach to understanding the region's left turn--and variation within it--is the most comprehensive explanation to date on the topic.
