Author Talk: Steven Levitsky with "How Democracies Die"

Join us for this talk with author Steven Levitsky on his book, How Democracies Die . This program is a partnership between the Boston Public Library and the Citywide Friends of the BPL. The United States’ descent into competitive authoritarianism during the second Trump presidency should never have happened. No democracy even remotely as rich or as old as America’s has ever broken down. American society had more than enough muscle to thwart an authoritarian offensive. But political, business, and civic leaders either acquiesced to the Trump administration’s authoritarian bullying or quietly stepped to the sidelines, allowing Trump’s authoritarian offensive to accelerate. This talk asks why U.S. elites abdicated in the face of an authoritarian threat, explores the prospects for reversing the authoritarian turn, and discusses what we can do to prevent it from happening again. Steven Levitsky is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard. His research focuses on democratization and authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions, with a focus on Latin America. He is co-author (with Daniel Ziblatt) of How Democracies Die , which was a New York Times Best-Seller and was published in 30 languages, and Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point . He has written or edited eleven other books, including Tran Listed from Boston Public Library's public calendar. Details and registration: https://bpl.bibliocommons.com/events/6ae24987198b996a80a93ffb