For its First Tuesday meeting on September 3, 2024 the League will hold a discussion of the book Tyranny of the Minority, by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt. Members who attended the First Tuesday gathering in February 2024 selected the book from three options. 

 

Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point, Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt, 2023. 

America is moving toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?

With the clarity and brilliance that made their first book, How Democracies Die, a global bestseller, Harvard professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt offer a coherent framework for understanding these volatile times. They draw on a wealth of examples—from 1930s France to present-day Thailand—to explain why and how political parties turn against democracy. They then show how our Constitution makes us uniquely vulnerable to attacks from within: It is a pernicious enabler of minority rule, allowing partisan minorities to consistently thwart and even rule over popular majorities. Most modern democracies—from Germany and Sweden to Argentina and New Zealand—have eliminated outdated institutions like elite upper chambers, indirect elections, and lifetime tenure for judges. The United States lags dangerously behind.

The location for our discussion of this book will be announced closer to the date.