Can We Save American Democracy?

In a spring Foreign Affairs article, Steven Levitsky, Professor of Government at Harvard University and co-author of How Democracies Die, predicts that “U.S. democracy will likely break down during the second Trump administration, in the sense that it will cease to meet standard criteria for liberal democracy: full adult suffrage, free and fair elections, and broad protection of civil liberties.” In this online event, Virginia Kase Solomón, President and CEO of the national pro-democracy organization Common Cause, will discuss how her organization and others are working to prove him wrong. We’ll explore some decisions by the Trump administration that worry democracy advocates—including election rule changes and military deployments to cities—as well as some of the strategies of democracy advocates, their prospects for success and failure, and what more can be done. Archon Fung, Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, will moderate.

Speakers include:

• Steven Levitsky, David Rockefeller Professor of Latin American Studies and Professor of Government and Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University
• Virginia Kase Solomón, President and CEO of Common Cause
• Archon Fung (Moderator), Director, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation; Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard Kennedy School