What Makes A Democracy Turn Into A Dictatorship? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVJ3_ilohJQ
Mallen Baker Mar 30, 2025 In their book 'How Democracies Die', Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt identify the four tells for a despot-in-waiting, the democratic guardrails that all dictators-in-progress seek to dismantle, and how they go about it - and the two other essential ingredients that protect a system that people often underestimate, or even miss entirely. And it won't astonish you to learn that all of this is really rather relevant to Donald Trump's America (and a number of other places besides)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Democracies_Die The book warns against the breakdown of "mutual toleration" and respect for the political legitimacy of the opposition. This tolerance involves accepting the results of a free and fair election where the opposition has won, in contrast with advocacy for overthrow or spurious complaints about the election mechanism. The authors also assert the importance of respecting the opinions of those who come to legitimately different political opinions, in contrast to attacking the patriotism of any who disagree, or warning that if they come to power they will destroy the country.
The authors warn against ramming through a political agenda or accumulating power by playing "constitutional hardball" with tactics like court packing, stonewalling nominations, or abusing the power of the purse, and recommend "forbearance" and some degree of cooperation to keep government functioning in a balanced fashion.
Other threats to democratic stability cited by the authors include economic inequality and segregation of the political parties by race, religion, and geography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj-olR6OCoE Media vs journalists