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Smoke-filled back rooms therefore served as a screening mechanism, helping to keep out the kind of demagogues and extremists who derailed democracy elsewhere in the world. American party gatekeeping was so effective that outsiders simply couldn't win. As a result, most didn't even try.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company. One of the richest men in the world in the early twentieth century, Ford was a modern version of the kind of extremist demagogue Hamilton had warned against. Using his Dearborn Independent as a megaphone, he railed against bankers, Jews, and Bolsheviks, publishing articles claiming that Jewish banking interests were conspiring against America. His views attracted praise from racists worldwi..
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Steven Levitsky |
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Yet Ford was also a widely admired, even beloved, figure in the United States, especially in the Midwest. A "poor farm boy who made good," the plainspoken businessman was revered by many rural Americans as a folk hero, alongside such presidents as Washington and Lincoln."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Ford harbored serious presidential ambitions, he was born a century too soon. What mattered far more than public opinion was the opinion of party leaders, and party leaders soundly rejected him.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Despite popular enthusiasm for his candidacy, Ford was effectively locked out of contention. Senator James Couzens called the idea of his candidacy ridiculous. "How can a man over sixty years old, who...has no training, no experience, aspire to such an office?" he asked. "It is most ridiculous."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Party gatekeeping also helped confine George Wallace to the margins of politics.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The post-1972 primary system was especially vulnerable to a particular kind of outsider: individuals with enough fame or money to skip the "invisible primary." In other words, celebrities."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Party gatekeepers were shells of what they once were, for two main reasons. One was a dramatic increase in the availability of outside money, accelerated (though hardly caused) by the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The other major factor diminishing the power of traditional gatekeepers was the explosion of alternative media, particularly cable news and social media. Whereas the path to national name recognition once ran through relatively few mainstream channels, which favored establishment politicians over extremists, the new media environment made it easier for celebrities to achieve wide name recognition--and public support--practically overnight. ..
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Steven Levitsky |
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Although many factors contributed to Donald Trump's stunning political success, his rise to the presidency is, in good measure, a story of ineffective gatekeeping. Party gatekeepers failed at three key junctures: the "invisible primary," the primaries themselves, and the general election."
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Steven Levitsky |
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American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections. They try to weaken the institutional buffers of our democracy, including the courts, intelligence services, and ethics offices.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The final warning sign is a readiness to curtail the civil liberties of rivals and critics. One thing that separates contemporary autocrats from democratic leaders is their intolerance of criticism, and their readiness to use their power to punish those--in the opposition, media, or civil society--who criticize them.
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Steven Levitsky |
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At a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, for example, he attacked Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, declaring, "If I become president, oh, do they have problems. They are going to have such problems."
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Steven Levitsky |
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I'm going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money....So that when the New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace--or when the Washington Post...writes a hit piece, we can sue them....
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Steven Levitsky |
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The primary process had failed in its gatekeeping role and allowed a man unfit for office to run as a mainstream party candidate.
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Steven Levitsky |
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when the government's approval rating is low, media and opposition grow more brazen, judges become emboldened to stand up to the president, and allies begin to dissent.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Most recently, the Erdogan government in Turkey used security crises to justify his tightening grip on power.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Collective abdication--the transfer of authority to a leader who threatens democracy--usually flows from one of two sources. The first is the misguided belief that an authoritarian can be controlled or tamed. The second is what sociologist Ivan Ermakoff calls "ideological collusion," in which the authoritarian's agenda overlaps sufficiently with that of mainstream politicians that abdication is desirable, or at least preferable to the alter..
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Steven Levitsky |
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most Republican leaders ended up holding the party line. If they had broken decisively with Trump, telling Americans loudly and clearly that he posed a threat to our country's cherished institutions, and if, on those grounds, they had endorsed Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump might never have ascended to the presidency.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The process often begins with words. Demagogues attack their critics in harsh and provocative terms--as enemies, as subversives, and even as terrorists.
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Steven Levitsky |
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These attacks can be consequential: If the public comes to share the view that opponents are linked to terrorism and the media are spreading lies, it becomes easier to justify taking actions against them.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The new leader's threatening words often have a boomerang effect. If the media feels threatened, it may abandon restraint and professional standards in a desperate effort to weaken the government. And the opposition may conclude that, for the good of the country, the government must be removed via extreme measures--impeachment, mass protest, even a coup.
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Steven Levitsky |
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For many citizens, it may, at first, be imperceptible. After all, elections continue to be held. Opposition politicians still sit in congress. Independent newspapers still circulate. The erosion of democracy takes place piecemeal, often in baby steps.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Each individual step seems minor--none appears to truly threaten democracy. Indeed, government moves to subvert democracy frequently enjoy a veneer of legality: They are approved by parliament or ruled constitutional by the supreme court. Many of them are adopted under the guise of pursuing some legitimate--even laudable--public objective, such as combating corruption, "cleaning up" elections, improving the quality of democracy, or enhancin..
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Steven Levitsky |
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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 percent of legislators in Louisiana's and South Carolina's lower houses were black. And because African Americans voted overwhelmingly Republican, black enfranchisement invigorated Republican and other challengers to the once-dominant Democrat..
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Steven Levitsky |
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If democratic elections continued, political scientist V. O. Key observed, it "would have been fatal to the status of black belt whites."
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Steven Levitsky |
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To comply with the letter of the law as stipulated in the Fifteenth Amendment, no mention of race could be made in efforts to restrict voting rights, so states introduced purportedly "neutral" poll taxes, property requirements, literacy tests, and complex written ballots."
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Steven Levitsky |
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The goal, as a state senator from North Carolina put it, was to write a "good square, honest law that will always give a good Democratic majority."
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Steven Levitsky |
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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 suffrage was now enshrined in the Constitution, "legal" or neutral-sounding measures were used to "insure that the Southern electorate...would be almost all white." Black turnout in the South fell from 61 percent in 1880 to just 2 percent in ..
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Steven Levitsky |
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The disenfranchisement of African Americans wiped out the Republican Party, locking in white supremacy and single-party rule for nearly a century. As one black southerner observed, "The whole South--every state in the South--had got into the hands of the very men that had held us as slaves."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Trump also found new ways to use old media as a substitute for party endorsements and traditional campaign spending. A "candidate with qualities uniquely tailored to the digital age," Trump attracted free mainstream coverage by creating controversy."
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Steven Levitsky |
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The gatekeepers of the invisible primary were not merely invisible; by 2016, they had left the building entirely.
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Steven Levitsky |
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In Tennessee, black suffrage made Republicans so competitive in 1888 that the pro-Democratic Avalanche predicted "a sweeping Republican victory" in the next election unless something were done." --
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Steven Levitsky |
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The whole South--every state in the South--had got into the hands of the very men that had held us as slaves.
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Steven Levitsky |
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With this move, Marcos ensconced himself in power for the next fourteen years.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Democracy's fate during the remainder of Trump's presidency will depend on several factors. The first is the behavior of Republican leaders. Democratic institutions depend crucially on the willingness of governing parties to defend them--even against their own leaders.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The combination of a would-be authoritarian and a major crisis can, therefore, be deadly for democracy.
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Steven Levitsky |
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A second approach is containment. Republicans who adopt this strategy may back the president on many issues, from judicial appointments to tax and health care reform, but draw a line at behavior they consider dangerous.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Finally, in principle, congressional leaders could seek the president's removal. This would be politically costly for them.
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Steven Levitsky |
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For demogagues hemmed in by constitutional constraints, a crisis represents an opportunity to begin to dismantle the inconvenient and sometimes threatening checks and balances that come with democratic politics. Crises allow autocrats to expand their room to maneuver and protect themselves from perceived enemies. But the question remains: Are democratic institutions so easily swept away?
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Steven Levitsky |
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But are constitutional safeguards, by themselves, enough to secure a democracy? We believe the answer is no.
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Steven Levitsky |
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If constitutional rules were enough, then figures such as Peron, Marcos, or Brazil's Getulio Vargas--all of whom took office under U.S.-style constitutions that, on paper, contained an impressive array of checks and balances--would have been one- or two-term presidents rather than notorious autocrats.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Even well-designed constitutions cannot, by themselves, guarantee democracy. For one, constitutions are always incomplete.
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Steven Levitsky |
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All successful democracies rely on informal rules that, though not found in the constitution or any laws, are widely known and respected. In the case of American democracy, this has been vital.
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Steven Levitsky |