How Democracies Die

In How Democracies Die, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt say there are four key indicators of authoritarian behavior.

Here are the four:

1. Rejection of (or weak commitment to) democratic rules of the game.

2. Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents.

3. Toleration or encouragement of violence.

4. Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including media.

They also say, "With the exception of Richard Nixon, no major-party presidential candidate met even one of these four criteria over the last century...Donald Trump [during his first presidential run] met them all."

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