Is Our Democracy Safe?

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2022

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This year’s midterm elections were widely seen as a victory for democracy in the United States. Election deniers were defeated in many closely watched races and voting proceeded smoothly, even in areas where the Big Lie has taken a firm hold. But the threat of authoritarianism remains strong. David Remnick talks with Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, authors of the best-seller “How Democracies Die” about recent political trends. “You can’t really live in a functioning democracy if you feel like each election is a national emergency,” Ziblatt says. “Because what it means is that we’re not confronting the major problems confronting our society.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNWC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.5	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnik.
0:12.6	We're going to continue from our last episode looking at the state of our democracy and
0:16.8	specifically, whether democracy is really any safer today than it was a month ago before
0:22.6	the midterm elections.
0:24.5	A few years back, I and a lot of other people read a book called How Democracies Die, a
0:29.6	bestseller in 2018.
0:31.2	It was written by two professors of government at Harvard University, Stephen Lewitsky and
0:36.7	Daniel Zibla.
0:38.3	They spent decades researching the breakdown of democracy in a variety of countries.
0:43.2	Now gentlemen, your book was published in the middle of the Trump administration, the
0:47.2	darkest days of it.
0:48.7	Now Trump seems to be, let's not count until he's out, but Trump seems to be on the fade.
0:54.8	An election deniers like Doug Masteriano and Carrie Lake, they all lost and Brazil,
1:01.0	Bolsonaro was voted out of power.
1:03.6	So what?
1:05.0	Mission accomplished.
1:06.0	Democracy is healthy, you're feeling great.
1:08.4	Let's start with you, Steve.
1:10.0	No, not at all.
1:12.4	The underlying fundamentals that lead us to be concerned about American democracy have
1:15.6	not changed.
	...

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