Steven Levitsky

Steven Levitsky is a professor of government at Harvard University, specializing in Latin American politics and comparative authoritarianism. His seminal work Competitive Authoritarianism, co-authored with Lucan Way, examines regimes that maintain democratic façades while exercising authoritarian control.

Daniel Ziblatt is also a Harvard professor and a scholar of European political development. His book Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy explores how conservative elites either foster or destroy democratic systems.

Together, they merge historical scholarship, comparative research, and contemporary analysis to illuminate how democracies fail—and, crucially, how they can still be saved through courage, unity, and a renewed commitment to the norms that make freedom possible.