Steven Levitsky

About the author

Born in Brookline in 1968, Steven Levitsky is a professor of government at Harvard University, a senior fellow for democracy at the Council on Foreign Relations, and a senior fellow at the Kettering Foundation. A comparative political scientist specializing in Latin America, his research spans political parties, authoritarianism, democratization, and informal institutions. He is best known for his work on competitive authoritarian regimes and for co-authoring the 2018 bestseller How Democracies Die with Daniel Ziblatt, which drew pointed parallels between Donald Trump's rhetoric and the historical breakdown of democracy elsewhere.