Global Americans and the Canadian Council for the Americas present “Two gringos with questions,” an interview series featuring political and cultural leaders from across the Americas. In the nineteenth episode, Chris and Ken speak to Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government at Harvard University and Co-author of “How Democracy’s die.”
Steven Levitsky is currently a professor of government at Harvard University. In 2018, along with fellow Harvard professor Daniel Ziblatt, Levitsky wrote How Democracies Die, which argues democracies die not because of external events such as military coups or foreign invasion, but due to the slow breakdown of critical institutions and the gradual erosion of political norms. The book received widespread praise and was recognized as the best book of 2018 by Foreign Affairs, Times, The Washington Post, and was on The New York Times best selling books list. How Democracies Die won the Goldsmith Book Prize and was shortlisted for the 2019 Lionel Gelber Prize.
Levitsky began his career at Harvard in 2000 as an assistant professor in the department of government. Currently, Levitsky is researching the durability of revolutionary regimes, the relationship between populism and competitive authoritarianism, problems of party-building in contemporary Latin America, and party collapse and its consequences for democracy in Peru. He is the Chair of Harvard’s Weatherhead Research Cluster on Challenges to Democracy.
Levitsky is a former Kellogg visiting fellow and an expert on Latin American politics. He has written numerous books, in 2010 he co-authored Competitive authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War with fellow Kellogg Visiting fellow Lucan Way. Other titles include but are not limited to: Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective (2003); Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America (2006); and The Resurgence of the Left in Latin America (2011).
Levitsky received his Ph.D in Political Science from the University of California at Berkley and his B.A. in Political Science from Stanford University.
Hosts Chris and Ken speak to Levitsky about the state of democracy in Latin America, what might have gone wrong in Venezuela, and the future of Argentina.
