The Retired Men’s Association of Greenwich, Inc. (RMA) will present a webinar with Professor Steven Levitsky, Ph.D., discussing “American Democracy in Crisis: Outlook for the Future.” The program will take place on Wednesday, July 8 at 11 a.m. To sign up for the webinar, log on to: bit.ly/30IBj21
In the U.S. today there is a belief held by many, but not all, that we are in grave danger of losing our democracy. Steven Levitsky is co-author with Daniel Ziblatt of ‘How Democracies Die’, which was a New York Times Best-Seller and has been published in 22 different languages. Based in large part on his academic research, Levitsky believes that U.S. democracy is under serious threat. He asks the question, “why has U.S. democracy fallen into crisis over the last decade, and how has deepening partisan polarization played a role?” He will discuss where this polarization comes from, focusing on racial and cultural re-alignment of the last half century. He will examine three threats going forward: (1) the threat of a slide into autocracy; (2) the threat of a slide into dysfunction; and (3) the threat of a slide into minority rule. Levitsky will conclude by considering what can be done to preserve American democracy.
Steven Levitsky is a noted comparative political scientist focusing on democratization and authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions, mostly in Latin America. He is the author or co-author of over half a dozen books in this area. Steven Levitsky is David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies/Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
He has also written for the New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Vox, The New Republic, and The Monkey Cage, and he has written regular columns in La República (Peru) and Folha Do Sao Paulo (Brazil).
Levitsky received a B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University in 1990 and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkley in 1999. He has been on the faculty of Harvard University since 2000.
