Starting half a century ago, political scientist Juan José Linz argued that Presidential systems were prone to democratic breakdown and advocated for parliamentary systems. Other political scientists vociferously disagreed, mostly on the basis of one famous case: the United States. But is the US a counterexample, after all?

During this session, Associate Professor Amelia Hoover Green examines crises of democracy — from FDR’s court-packing attempt, to modern authoritarianism in Hungary, Russia, and Venezuela, to recent concerns about the 2020 US Presidential election.