EPISODE · Mar 30, 2025 · 23 MIN
What Makes A Democracy Turn Into A Dictatorship?
from Mallen Baker: Faultlines · host Mallen Baker
In their book 'How Democracies Die', Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt identify the four tells for a despot-in-waiting, the democratic guardrails that all dictators-in-progress seek to dismantle, and how they go about it - and the two other essential ingredients that protect a system that people often underestimate, or even miss entirely. And it won't astonish you to learn that all of this is really rather relevant to Donald Trump's America (and a number of other places besides). Let's discuss.
What this episode covers
In their book 'How Democracies Die', Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt identify the four tells for a despot-in-waiting, the democratic guardrails that all dictators-in-progress seek to dismantle, and how they go about it - and the two other essential ingredients that protect a system that people often underestimate, or even miss entirely. And it won't astonish you to learn that all of this is really rather relevant to Donald Trump's America (and a number of other places besides). Let's discuss.
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What Makes A Democracy Turn Into A Dictatorship?
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