“ The Electoral College, made up of locally prominent men in each state, would thus be responsible for choosing the president. Under this arrangement, Hamilton reasoned, the office of president will sel… Steven Levitsky
“ The 1990–2015 period was easily the most democratic quarter century in world history—partly because Western powers broadly supported democracy. That may now be changing. Under Donald Trump, the United… Steven Levitsky
“ Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the line that forms on the right. It is the don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is t… Steven Levitsky
“ Public support is a useful tool in this regard. When an elected leader enjoys, say, a 70 percent approval rating, critics jump on the bandwagon, media coverage softens, judges grow more reluctant to r… Steven Levitsky
“ Party gatekeepers failed at three key junctures: the invisible primary, the primaries themselves, and the general election. Steven Levitsky
“ Over the last quarter century, Democrats and Republicans have become much more than just two competing parties, sorted into liberal and conservative camps. Their voters are now deeply divided by race,… Steven Levitsky
“ Opposition strategies in Colombia under President Álvaro Uribe were more successful. Steven Levitsky
“ In the early 1990s, Gingrich and his team distributed memos to Republican candidates instructing them to use certain negative words to describe Democrats, including pathetic, sick, bizarre, betray, an… Steven Levitsky
“ Governments that cannot remove independent judges may bypass them through court packing. In Hungary, for instance, the Orbán government expanded the size of the Constitutional Court from eight to fift… Steven Levitsky
“ Finally, in principle, congressional leaders could seek the president’s removal. This would be politically costly for them. Steven Levitsky
“ Enfranchisement empowered African Americans: More than two thousand southern freedmen won elective office in the 1870s, including fourteen congressmen and two U.S. senators. At one point, more than 40… Steven Levitsky
“ But are constitutional safeguards, by themselves, enough to secure a democracy? We believe the answer is no. Steven Levitsky
“ A poll taken prior to the 2012 presidential election found that 71 percent of Mexicans believed that fraud could be in play. Steven Levitsky
“ A comparative approach also reveals how elected autocrats in different parts of the world employ remarkably similar strategies to subvert democratic institutions. As these patterns become visible, the… Steven Levitsky
“ But presidents have historically exercised it with great restraint, seeking advice from the Justice Department and never issuing pardons for self-protection or political gain. Steven Levitsky
“ With tactics like these, the Republicans had begun to behave like an antisystem political party. By the end of the Obama presidency, democracy’s soft guardrails were becoming dangerously unmoored. Steven Levitsky
“ When norms of mutual toleration are weak, democracy is hard to sustain. If we view our rivals as a dangerous threat, we have much to fear if they are elected. We may decide to employ any means necessa… Steven Levitsky
“ Under President Trump, America has been defining political deviancy down. The president’s routine use of personal insult, bullying, lying, and cheating has, inevitably, helped to normalize such practi… Steven Levitsky
“ Throughout his life, Washington had learned that he gained power from his readiness to give it up. Thanks to his enormous prestige, this forbearance infused many of the American republic’s other nasce… Steven Levitsky
“ These reform measures effectively killed democracy in the American South. Even though African Americans constituted a majority or near-majority of the population in many states, and even though black… Steven Levitsky
