Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point

In the Introduction of Tyranny of the Minority, Levitsky and Ziblatt note that, prior to the election of President Donald Trump, the US was on the cusp of becoming a multiracial democracy. A multiracial democracy is a political system in which laws provide equal access to civil and democratic liberties, such as the right to vote and freedom of speech, for all adult citizens regardless of racial or ethnic background. The 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act provided the legal foundation for this multiracial democracy. While access to the ballot still remains unequal in the US, the majority of Americans for the first time in the country’s history embraced the two key pillars of a multiracial democracy: ethnic diversity and racial equality.

Between 2015 and 2021, the US experienced democratic backsliding. The authors note that “meaningful steps toward democratic inclusion often trigger intense—even authoritarian—reaction” (6). However, even the authors themselves were surprised at the fierceness of the authoritarian backlash. Like many scholars, Levitsky and Ziblatt thought the US was immune to democratic backsliding because it was an old and wealthy democracy.

Levitsky and Ziblatt end the Introduction by noting that political institutions, including the US Constitution, rather than simply the election of Trump, are at the heart of the current instability and authoritarian backlash.