Professor Daniel Ziblatt's office at Harvard University smells like a library, of old paper and wood, with a hint of vanilla.
Many books fill the shelves around the desk of America's arguably most important democracy researcher: antique tomes, newly printed works, historical texts alongside political ones. They often deal with world wars and social policy, with Europe and America, especially the USA and Germany — the two countries that shape Ziblatt's life and work.
And of course, the book from 2018 that made the Harvard researcher and his co-author Steven Levitsky world-famous and has been translated into around 30 languages is also here: "How Democracies Die".
Today, Ziblatt has to watch as his own world begins to unravel.
Ziblatt, 53, with a shaved head and rimless glasses, heads the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard and the "Transformations of Democracy" department at the Berlin Social Science Center. Harvard, his university, in particular, has come under fire from Donald Trump.
“The United States has become more authoritarian in recent months than I ever expected,” says Ziblatt. He furrows his high forehead. “There has never been such a broad attack on democracy in the history of the USA.”
Modern democracies are slowly and quietly collapsing, according to the thesis of Ziblatt's bestseller. They are not destroyed suddenly by a coup, but rather eroded by elected politicians who gradually undermine institutions – through attacks on political opponents, the media, the judiciary,and universities. When the book was published, some critics considered it exaggerated. Now, the thesis is virtually undisputed.
“The United States has become more authoritarian in recent months than I ever expected ... There has never been such a broad attack on democracy in the history of the USA.” – Daniel Ziblatt
Germany, France, Great Britain. In many Western countries, anti-democratic forces are gaining momentum. If they were to come to power, they would get to work, says Ziblatt.
"The Trump administration acted much faster in its first year than Modi in India, Erdoğan in Turkey, or Orbán in Hungary. The instrumentalization of the state, the attacks on civil society institutions, the attempt to change the political system – that took much longer in the other countries."
The US has become a "fragile" democracy within twelve months, similar to Hungary or Turkey: "There is still political competition for power. But it is distorted in favor of those in power."
