The authors, two
Harvard professors, claim that democracies decline into authoritarian
dictatorships. They provide four basic criteria with supplemental
points to evaluate the criteria. The sum of their analysis is then
described in a qualitative review of how European and South American
dictatorships devolved into dictatorships.
I was disappointed
in the level of analysis provided by the qualitative method used in
this book. There was no attempt to analyze and present the spectrum
of democracies. Some were far right; some far left. It would have
been instructive to understand how their differences and similarities
affected the outcome.
Another limitation
of the discussion was that the authors insist on calling the US a
democracy. It was planned as a republic. There are differences
between the two systems of government, and those differences have
meaning. I thought there should have been at least an acknowledgment
of what factors make a democracy as opposed to a republic.
My overall
impression of the book was that instead of a scholarly analysis
exploring both sides of a question, the authors slanted the
presentation of their research to make a political point. They do not
like President Trump,and feel he is dangerous, an outsider on the way
to becoming a dictator. From reading the news on a daily basis, I
suspect there is more than one story to be told here and should
include analysis of both political parties.
I received this book
from Blogging for Books for this review.
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