Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy

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AuthorSuzanne Mettler
PublisherSt. Martin's Griffin
PublishedJul 25 2021
Book FormatPaperback
ISBN-139781250797162
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CategoriesPolitical Science > Political Ideologies - Democracy
LanguageEnglish

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Book Description

An important work of scholarship that should be read by anyone concerned with America's future. --Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World

An urgent, historically-grounded take on the four major factors that undermine American democracy, and what we can do to address them.

While many Americans despair of the current state of U.S. 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 U.S. 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. But history provides a valuable repository from which we can draw lessons about how democracy was eventually strengthened--or weakened--in the past. 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 our civic fabric and renewing democracy.

Author Bio

Suzanne Mettler is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions in the Government Department at Cornell University. Her research and teaching interests include American political development, inequality, public policy, political behavior, and democracy.

Mettler’s latest book is Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy (St. Martin’s Press, 2020), co-authored with Robert C. Lieberman. Earlier books include: The Government-Citizen Disconnect (Russell Sage 2018); Degrees of Inequality: How The Politics of Higher Education Sabotaged the American Dream (Basic Books 2014), The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Programs Undermine American Democracy (University of Chicago 2011), Dividing Citizens: Gender and Federalism In New Deal Public Policy (Cornell University Press 1998) and Soldiers to Citizens: The G.I. Bill and the Making of the Greatest Generation (Oxford University Press 2005). Her books have won numerous prizes, including the Alexander George Book Award of the International Society of Political Psychology; on two occasions, the Kammerer Book Award of the American Political Science Association for the best book on public policy; and the J. David Greenstone Award for the best book on politics and history. Her short essays and op-eds have been featured in popular outlets including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Washington Monthly. She is conducting a panel study of public opinion on the Affordable Care Act, with Larry Jacobs.

Mettler has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and awarded Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships. She serves on the steering committee of the Scholars Strategy Network and the board of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. She is the former secretary of the American Political Science Association, and president of the organization’s Politics and History and Public Policy sections. She initiated the American Democracy Collaborative, a group of scholars of American political development and comparative politics who are evaluating the health of democracy in the United States.

Research Interests

Suzanne Mettler's research and teaching focus on American political development, public policy, and political behavior. “She is particularly interested in issues pertaining to democracy (both democratization and backsliding), inequality, and citizenship.

Education