Other threats to democratic stability cited by the authors include economic inequality and segregation of the political parties by race, religion, and geography.

The authors dedicate many chapters to the study of the United States, Donald Trump, and the 2016 U.S. presidential election but also apply their theory to Latin America and European countries, especially Venezuela and Russia.

According to them, the United States has, until 2016, resisted the attempts to undermine democracy thanks to two norms: mutual toleration and forbearance, the latter defined as the intentional restraint of one's power in order to respect the spirit of the law if not its letters.

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard professors and political scientists, study the prospect of the democratic system in an holistic approach, and take a critical stand of the Trump presidency.

The main subjects are drawn in the introduction: the authors argue that in our time, democracies still die but by different means, "less at the hand of men with guns and more by elected leaders".

"[2] They make recommendations for the Republicans, who "must build a more diverse electoral constituency and they must find ways to win elections without appealing to white nationalism, the sugar high of populism, nativism, and demagoguery",[3] and who has to "realize that the president could inflict real damage on our institutions in the long term.

[12] David Runciman in The Guardian called it provocative but puts too much emphasis on lessons from history instead of forces like social media and inequality.

[14] Fair Observer[better source needed] called it an original contribution valuable to researchers, policy makers, and citizens.

[17] In a scholarly review, political theorist Rosolino A. Candela praised the work and concluded that academics will find "much to learn, unpack, and develop".