How democracies survive
We must all play our part to safeguard democracy
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, democracy is the worst form of government — except for every other one we’ve tried. While democracy isn’t perfect, it’s the only political system that truly gives power to the people, guarantees individual rights and freedoms, and allows people to live and prosper in peace. But as Harvard University professors Levitsky and Ziblatt expound upon in How Democracies Die, democracy is fragile and will die if we don’t actively work to preserve it.
As Levitsky and Ziblatt explain, most democracies do not die suddenly in a violent coup, but rather slowly over time as democratic institutions and norms are eroded. They identify several warning signs of democratic decline, including attacks on the media, the judiciary and civil society, as well as the breaking of unwritten rules that serve as soft guardrails of democracy.
Chief among these unwritten rules is mutual toleration between political rivals as legitimate competition for political power, and institutional forbearance, in which political actors do not violate the spirit of the law for partisan gain even though their actions may be consistent with the letter of it. In a hyper-partisan environment with its win at all costs mentality, mutual toleration and institutional forbearance break down…
