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If partisan animosity prevails over mutual toleration, those in control of congress may prioritize defense of the president over the performance of their constitutional duties. In an effort to stave off opposition victory, they may abandon their oversight role, enabling the president to get away with abusive, illegal, and even authoritarian acts. Such a transformation from watchdog into lapdog--think of Peron's acquiescent congress in Argen..
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Steven Levitsky |
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Throughout his life, Washington had learned that he "gained power from his readiness to give it up." Thanks to his enormous prestige, this forbearance infused many of the American republic's other nascent political institutions. As historian Gordon Wood put it, "If any single person was responsible for establishing the young Republic on a firm footing, it was Washington."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Polarization can destroy democratic norms. When socioeconomic, racial, or religious differences give rise to extreme partisanship, in which societies sort themselves into political camps whose worldviews are not just different but mutually exclusive, toleration becomes harder to sustain. Some polarization is healthy - even necessary - for democracy. And indeed, the historical experience of democracies in Western Europe shows us that norms c..
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Steven Levitsky |
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The strength of the American political system, it has often been said, rests on what Swedish Nobel Prize-winning economist Gunnar Myrdal called the American Creed: the principles of individual freedom and egalitarianism. Written into our founding documents and repeated in classrooms, speeches, and editorial pages, freedom and equality are self-justifying values. But they are not self-executing. Mutual toleration and institutional forbearanc..
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Steven Levitsky |
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Germany's 1919 Weimar constitution was designed by some of the country's greatest legal minds. Its long-standing and highly regarded Rechtsstaat ("rule of law") was considered by many as sufficient to prevent government abuse. But both the constitution and the Rechtsstaat collapsed rapidly in the face of Adolf Hitler's usurpation of power in 1933."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Uma coisa que distingue autocratas de lideres democraticos contemporaneos e sua intolerancia a critica e a disposicao de usar seu poder para punir aqueles que - na oposicao, na midia ou na sociedade civil - venham a critica-los.
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politics
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Steven Levitsky |
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Among the most important figures to emerge during this period was Father Charles Coughlin, an anti-Semitic Catholic priest whose fiery nationalist radio program reached up to forty million listeners a week.
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Steven Levitsky |
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The Depression also gave rise to Louisiana governor and senator Huey Long, who called himself "the Kingfish." Long was described by the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. as "the great demagogue of the day, a man who resembled...a Latin American dictator, a Vargas or a Peron."
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Steven Levitsky |
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Years after Chavez's presidential victory, Rafael Caldera explained his mistakes simply: "Nobody thought that Mr. Chavez had even the remotest chance of becoming president." And merely a day after Hitler became chancellor, a prominent conservative who aided him admitted, "I have just committed the greatest stupidity of my life; I have allied myself with the greatest demagogue in world history."
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Steven Levitsky |
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The Plot Against America, American novelist Philip Roth builds
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Steven Levitsky |
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American mass-media hero, Charles Lindbergh,
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Steven Levitsky |
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Senator Joseph McCarthy, who used the Cold War fear of communist subversion to promote blacklisting, censorship, and book banning, enjoyed wide backing among the American public. At
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Steven Levitsky |
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decade later, Alabama governor George Wallace's defiant segregationist stance vaulted him to national prominence, leading to surprisingly vigorous bids for the presidency in 1968 and 1972.
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Steven Levitsky |
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There is one thing more powerful than the Constitution....That's the will of the people. What is a Constitution anyway? They're the products of the people, the people are the first source of power, and the people can abolish a Constitution if they want to.
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Steven Levitsky |
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Throughout his life, Washington had learned that he "gained power from his readiness to give it up." Thanks to his enormous prestige, this forbearance infused many of the American republic's other nascent political institutions. As historian Gordon Wood put it, "If any single person was responsible for establishing the young Republic on a firm footing, it was Washington." --
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Steven Levitsky |