How Democracies Die

How Democracies Die is a 2018 comparative politics book by Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt about democratic backsliding, and how elected leaders can gradually subvert the democratic process to increase their power. The book examines the political systems in countries such as Venezuela, Russia, Turkey, Thailand, Hungary and Poland, and also offers stark warnings about the first Donald Trump presidency which, in the authors' view, imperils U.S. democracy. The book was a widely praised bestseller. In 2023, Levitsky and Ziblatt published a sequel of sorts, titled Tyranny of the Minority. It provides an update on the global prospects for democracy, with a focus on counter-majoritarian devices being deployed in the U.S. to prevent democratic rule by the majority.