grape’s Reviews > How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future > Status Update

“Even well-designed constitutions cannot by themselves guaranteed democracy for one constitutions are always incomplete like any set of rules they have countless gaps ambiguities.”

“God has never endowed any statesman or philosopher, or anybody of them with wisdom enough frame, a system of government that everybody could go off and leave.”
-Benjamin Harrison

„Whereas old-school dictators often jailed, exiled, or even killed their rivals, contemporary autocrats tend to hide their repression behind a veneer of legality.“
„One of the great ironies of how democracies die is that the very defense of democracy is often used as a pretext for its subversion.“

Since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have been caused not by generals and soldiers but by elected governments themselves.
Political party’s are democracy’s gatekeepers.
Successful gatekeepers requires that mainstream’s party come together to isolate and defeat extremist forces (= “distancing“).
Litmus test for identifying antidemocratic politicians.

How can extremists & demagogues get real political power?
Before reformation:
Party is responsible for keeping them out.
It was generally not possible for an outsider to achieve power (due to constitutional conditions).
After reformation:
Party is still responsible.
However there are still barriers for outsiders such as the “invisible primary“ and so on!