Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy

by Suzanne Mettler, Robert C. Lieberman

Overview

“A lively read about the cracks in the system. What’s more, it offers some good ideas for how we might go about fixing them.” —Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker

While many Americans despair of the current state of US politics, most assume that our system of government and democracy itself are invulnerable to decay. Yet when we examine the past, we find that the United States has undergone repeated crises of democracy, from the earliest days of the republic to the present.

In Four Threats, Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman explore five moments in history when democracy in the US was under siege: the 1790s, the Civil War, the Gilded Age, the Depression, and Watergate. These episodes risked profound—even fatal—damage to the American democratic experiment. From this history, four distinct characteristics of disruption emerge. Political polarization, racism and nativism, economic inequality, and excessive executive power—alone or in combination—have threatened the survival of the republic, but it has survived—so far. What is unique, and alarming, about the present moment in American politics is that all four conditions exist.

This convergence marks the contemporary era as a grave moment for democracy. By revisiting how earlier generations of Americans faced threats to the principles enshrined in the Constitution, we can see the promise and the peril that have led us to today and chart a path toward repairing and renewing democracy.

“Truly splendid, even brilliant.” —Sanford Levinson, University of Texas School of Law

“Bracing, well-informed history.” —Publishers Weekly

“We recommend this book to all citizens concerned about the fate of American democracy.” —Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, bestselling authors of How Democracies Die

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250244437
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/04/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	301
Sales rank:	381,191
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

ROBERT C. LIEBERMAN is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins. He has received fellowships from the Russell Sage Foundation and the American Philosophical Society. SUZANNE METTLERis the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions in the Government Department at Cornell University. She is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Democracy Under Siege 1

1 Threats to Democracy 9

2 Polarization Wreaks Havoc in the 1790s 29

3 Democratic Disintegration in the 1850s 61

4 Backsliding in the 1890s 92

5 Executive Aggrandizement in the 1930s 130

6 The Weaponized Presidency in the 1970s 159

7 At All Costs: How the Four Threats Endanger Democracy 190

8 Dangerous Convergence 210

9 Putting Democracy First 240

Acknowledgments 259

Notes 264

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

05/25/2020

In this solemn and scholarly survey, political scientists Mettler (The Government-Citizen Disconnect) and Lieberman (Shaping Race Policy) examine five periods of “democratic fragility” in American history in order to better understand the current political moment. The periods they spotlight are the 1790s, with discord over the Alien and Sedition Acts, the “Bleeding Kansas” era of the 1850s, black disenfranchisement during the 1890s, the enhancement of executive powers to combat the Great Depression, and the partisan warfare of the Watergate era. The authors then examine how the same four threats—“political polarization, conflict over who belongs in the political community, high and growing economic inequality, and excessive executive power”—in different combinations and to varying degrees, imperiled American democracy during each moment of crisis. With the election of Donald Trump, Mettler and Lieberman contend, those dangers have “converged at high levels” for the first time in U.S. history. To preserve American democracy, they call on the Democratic Party to stand firm on voting rights, civil rights, fair competition, and the rule of law in the face of Republican opposition. Mettler and Lieberman marshal a wealth of evidence to make their case, and incisively sketch the factors at play in each historical period. This bracing, well-informed history will galvanize liberals ahead of the 2020 election. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

And yet, for the gravity of its subject matter, Four Threats is a lively read about the cracks in the system. What’s more, it offers some good ideas for how we might go about fixing them.” — Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker

"Truly splendid, even brilliant.” — Sanford Levinson, University of Texas School of Law

"Mettler and Lieberman marshal a wealth of evidence to make their case, and incisively sketch the factors at play in each historical period. Bracing, well-informed history." — Publishers Weekly

"In an analysis deeply rooted in American history and animated by an unshakable commitment to democratic values, Mettler and Lieberman issue a cry of political alarm that privileges illumination over hysteria and reminds us that this is not the first time our nation has struggled with demons. Their eloquent call for political and social renewal allies realism with hope, and it could not be more timely.” — E. J. Dionne, Jr., author of Code Red and co-author of One Nation After Trump

"A rich and textured account of American history through which to understand where we are today. When you finish this book, you'll be neither complacent nor despairing. But you'll be more ready to act intelligently to deal with the challenges we face." —William Kristol, director, Defending Democracy Together

“This is a masterful account of the long arc of American democracy. Long simmering historical threats have today converged leaving our current predicament deeply perilous. We recommend this book to all citizens concerned about the fate of American democracy.” —Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, bestselling authors of How Democracies Die

“Four Threats is a sobering and instructive read. It is also a call to action to all those who would put country over party, democracy over ideology. Mettler and Lieberman rely on both history — vividly told — and political science to demonstrate precisely what is at stake for the future of the American experiment.” —Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America

“This is an important work of scholarship that should be read by anyone concerned with America’s future. Deeply grounded in five pivotal moments in history, the authors make a compelling case that we are now living through the most consequential of these tests of American democracy. Forces that have existed throughout American history, and have waxed and waned over the years, have all come together to present the United States with an existential challenge. How we come out of this will shape the country’s character for decades to come.” —Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World

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