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110 Cal. L. Rev. 1991 (2022)
"The Third Founding: The Rise of Multiracial Democracy and the Authoritarian Reaction against It"

handle is hein.journals/calr110 and id is 2012 raw text is: The Third Founding: The Rise of Multiracial Democracy and the Authoritarian Reaction Against It Steven Levitsky* STEVEN LEVITSKY: Many, many thanks to the Brennan Center and to Berkeley Law for the invitation to speak at this event.1 It's really an honor to be here as part of the series, and also with this really distinguished group of commentators. I regret that we can't be in person in Berkeley. It's pretty clear American democracy is at a crossroads. On the one hand, we stand at the brink of multiracial democracy, which is an unparalleled achievement. On the other hand, we stand on the brink of democratic breakdown. One of our major parties is no longer committed to playing by the democratic rules of the game. I'm going to argue that these two streams, these two developments, are closely interrelated, that our current crisis is very much rooted in a reaction against multiracial democracy. I'm also going to argue, maybe more out on a limb, that our Constitution has become part of the problem and that it may be trapping us into minority rule. My first point is an important and I think often underappreciated one: the United States is undergoing an extraordinary transition to multiracial democracy. Our definition of multiracial democracy is minimalist. Modern democracy, at least for comparative political scientists, is a system of regular free and fair elections in which all adults possess the right to vote as well as basic civil liberties like freedom of speech, press, association, and protest. A multiracial democracy is simply a democracy in a diverse society in which those basic rights are universally protected across ethnic groups; in other words, where the rights of individuals of all ethnic groups are protected equally. The U.S. became a multiracial democracy on paper in the 1960s, but even today there's plenty of evidence that we fall short of that in practice. Black DOI: https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38D21RK4G. Copyright © 2022 Steven Levitsky * Pmfessor of Government, Harvard University. 1. Pmfessor Steven Levitsky delivered this lectumre for The Brennan Center's annual Jorde Symposium on November 4, 2021. Berkeley Law co-hosted the event, and it was presented online. 1991

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