Steven Levitsky Bücher

Warum eine reaktionäre Minderheit sich durchzusetzen droht - das Buch zur US-Präsidentschaftswahl 2024 Wie kann es uns gelingen, die Demokratie vor radikalen Minderheiten zu schützen, die sie von innen untergraben, destabilisieren und sogar zu zerstören drohen? Steven Levitsky und Daniel Ziblatt, Autoren des Weltbestsellers »Wie Demokratien sterben«, zeigen am Beispiel der USA, wie die Kräfte entstehen, die unsere demokratischen Prinzipien in ihren Grundfesten erschüttern und autoritären Strömungen den Weg ebnen. Sie beschreiben das große Paradox westlicher Demokratien: dass nämlich Inklusivität und Diversität oft gerade ausgrenzende Gegenbewegungen erzeugen. So wird deutlich: Die Demokratie steht an einem Scheideweg und muss jetzt reformiert werden, wenn sie nicht zu einer Herrschaft der Minderheit verkommen soll. Die Zukunft der Demokratie steht nicht nur bei den US-Wahlen 2024, sondern – angesichts des Aufstiegs der AfD und anderer rechtspopulistischer Parteien – auch in Deutschland, Europa und dem Rest der Welt auf dem Spiel.

Ausgezeichnet mit dem NDR Kultur Sachbuchpreis Demokratien sterben mit einem Knall oder mit einem Wimmern. Der Knall, also das oft gewaltsame Ende einer Demokratie durch einen Putsch, einen Krieg oder eine Revolution, ist spektakulärer. Doch das Dahinsiechen einer Demokratie, das Sterben mit einem Wimmern, ist alltäglicher – und gefährlicher, weil die Bürger meist erst aufwachen, wenn es zu spät ist. Mit Blick auf die USA, Lateinamerika und Europa zeigen die beiden Politologen Steven Levitsky und Daniel Ziblatt, woran wir erkennen, dass demokratische Institutionen und Prozesse ausgehöhlt werden. Und sie sagen, an welchen Punkten wir eingreifen können, um diese Entwicklung zu stoppen. Denn mit gezielter Gegenwehr lässt sich die Demokratie retten – auch vom Sterbebett.

In this incisive and razor-sharp analysis of one of the most important issues facing us today, leading Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt draw on their combined expertise of over 40 years to examine how dictators come to power, and how they help to foster a poisonous culture of polarisation, fear and suspicion that persists even after their time in power is over.Using contemporary examples including the Capitol riots and voter suppression in the US, as well as global examples from history including post-1945 Germany and Brazil and Chile during the '60s and '70s, the authors dissect conservative resistance to pluralism and modern threats to multiracial democracy (including the unwillingness of political parties to adapt to modern times, and a growing disregard for constitutional norms and free and fair elections) while imploring readers to stand up in its defence.Focusing on the forthcoming American election as an essential case study, Saving Democracy offers us imperative tools for implementing urgent democratic reform, brilliantly illuminating how we can respond to the political battles ahead.

Competitive authoritarian regimes – in which autocrats submit to meaningful multiparty elections but engage in serious democratic abuse – proliferated in the post–Cold War era. Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.

"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." -- Page 2 of cover

The book explores the adaptability of contemporary Latin American labor-based parties in the face of neoliberalism and declining working-class influence. It posits that loosely structured party organizations, exemplified by Argentina's Justicialista Party (PJ), are more flexible than traditional bureaucratic models. The analysis reveals how PJ's fluid internal dynamics enabled its transformation from a union-centric populist party to a proponent of radical market-oriented reforms, highlighting the significance of organizational structure in political resilience and evolution.