Sep 24, 2026 · 53 min · 13 segments
Exercising the right to vote.(Shutterstock / Shutterstock) This week on Eastern Standard: Episode 32 of our series, Democracy Optimist, takes the temperature of a challenged American democracy with…
Celina StewartGuest
Steven LevitskyGuest
Joshua DouglasHostTom MartinHost
Is a show called Democracy Optimist tone deaf in the current environment when we can see threats to the future of American democracy all around us? We had the harrowing events of January 6th, after all, when a violent insurrection at the U.S.
Capitol attempted to block the peaceful transfer of power by stopping the certification of the 2020 election.
Even the most developed countries in the world are susceptible to the erosion of their democratic institutions, and the U.S. is no exception.
We also hear a common call to action from both Democrats and Republicans who say the very future of American democracy is at stake in every election.
Are they exaggerating? Or are we in a period of Democratic backsliding? Here today to help us decide is Professor Steven Levitsky, who has studied democracy and authoritarianism all around the world.
Steve is the David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and a professor of government at Harvard University.
He's also the co-author of several successful books, including two New York Times bestsellers, How Democracies Die, and most recently, Tyranny of the Minority, Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point.
still a democracy? Well, that depends how you define democracy, and it depends how into the weeds you want to get.
Those of us who study political regimes, who study democracies and authoritarian regimes across the world have developed very fine-tuned measures, because there are many, many gray areas in between democracy and authoritarianism.
And technically, as a As a scholar of political regimes, as somebody whose job it is occasionally to label whether countries are or are not democracies, I would say the United States has slid out of the category of full democracy, like Canada or Germany or New Zealand, and into a hybrid zone that Luke and I call competitive authoritarianism.
But if you took a snapshot right now, I would say we're not – a full democracy.
Again, not only is it a mild transition away from democracy, it's a very reversible one.
You talk about this in a foreign affairs article that came out, I think, at the end of 2025.
Can you talk a little bit more about what that term means and maybe some examples of other competitive authoritarian leaders around the world?
Is a show called Democracy Optimist tone deaf in the current environment when we can see threats to the future of American democracy all around us? We had the harrowing events of January 6th, after all, when a violent insurrection at the U.S.
Capitol attempted to block the peaceful transfer of power by stopping the certification of the 2020 election.
Even the most developed countries in the world are susceptible to the erosion of their democratic institutions, and the U.S. is no exception.
We also hear a common call to action from both Democrats and Republicans who say the very future of American democracy is at stake in every election.
Are they exaggerating? Or are we in a period of Democratic backsliding? Here today to help us decide is Professor Steven Levitsky, who has studied democracy and authoritarianism all around the world.
Steve is the David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and a professor of government at Harvard University.
He's also the co-author of several successful books, including two New York Times bestsellers, How Democracies Die, and most recently, Tyranny of the Minority, Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point.
still a democracy? Well, that depends how you define democracy, and it depends how into the weeds you want to get.
Those of us who study political regimes, who study democracies and authoritarian regimes across the world have developed very fine-tuned measures, because there are many, many gray areas in between democracy and authoritarianism.
And technically, as a As a scholar of political regimes, as somebody whose job it is occasionally to label whether countries are or are not democracies, I would say the United States has slid out of the category of full democracy, like Canada or Germany or New Zealand, and into a hybrid zone that Luke and I call competitive authoritarianism.
But if you took a snapshot right now, I would say we're not – a full democracy.
Again, not only is it a mild transition away from democracy, it's a very reversible one.
You talk about this in a foreign affairs article that came out, I think, at the end of 2025.
Can you talk a little bit more about what that term means and maybe some examples of other competitive authoritarian leaders around the world?
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