💡 "Democracy no longer ends with a bang — in a revolution or military coup — but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms." — Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, How Democracies Die
How would you describe the political system in your country? Are you satisfied with it?
Do you actually believe your vote makes a difference? Why or why not?
Can you think of any countries that are not democratic but function well? What does that tell us?
Is it possible to have too much democracy? What might that look like?
What is the biggest threat to democracy in the world today?
A hand placing an envelope into a ballot box at the French presidential elections
The dome of the United States Capitol with the US flag — the institution Levitsky describes as the "referee" that backsliding regimes seek to capture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LATq3kavcus
Steven Levitsky on "How Democracies Die" — Chicago Center on Democracy, University of Chicago. Long-form interview — cue from minute 4 onwards for the most useful clipped passage.
✍️ Open Cloze — Fill in the gaps with ONE word only (from the video / book)
Most democracies today die a slow death. Democracy no longer ends (1) _ _ _ _ _ a bang — in a revolution or military coup — but with a whimper: the slow, steady (2) _ _ _ _ _ of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms.
In contemporary society, most democracies die (3) _ _ _ _ _ the hands of their elected leaders, especially when an elected leader uses democratic institutions to subvert the democratic process. The first thing that an elected authoritarian does is capture the (4) _ _ _ _ _ of government — by purging or packing the judiciary, the Attorney General's office, the prosecutor's office — and bring the independent (5) _ _ _ _ _ of politics under their control.
Once you (6) _ _ _ _ _ the referees, you have a shield that allows you to abuse power without the courts' oversight, because they are in your pocket. Tanks (7) _ _ _ _ _ not exist in the streets. Elections still happen. Newspapers are still published. But the substance of democracy has been (8) _ _ _ _ _ . Government efforts to subvert democracy frequently enjoy a (9) _ _ _ _ _ of legality. Each individual step seems minor; (10) _ _ _ _ _ appears to truly threaten democracy.
