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  5. When Democracy Falters: A Multidisciplinary, Multi-book Review Essay on Polarization, Populism, and Authoritarianism

Journal of Economic Literature

ISSN 0022-0515 (Print) | ISSN 2328-8175 (Online)

When Democracy Falters: A Multidisciplinary, Multi-book Review Essay on Polarization, Populism, and Authoritarianism

  • Betsey Stevenson
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 64, no. 2, June 2026
(pp. 679–97)
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Abstract

This multi-book review argues that identity-driven polarization interacts with institutional design to erode democratic guardrails. Reading Heather Cox Richardson's Democracy Awakening, Tom Schaller, and Paul Waldman's White Rural Rage, and Ezra Klein's Why We're Polarized through an economist's lens, I emphasize two claims. First, when institutions fail to deliver broadly shared security and dignity, anti-pluralist projects gain legitimacy and room to maneuver. Second, questions of belonging, citizenship, and the obligations of government to the people are informed by culture and institutional trust. The culture of the United States is not one that lends itself readily to ethno-nationalism, but these books make a case for an America that is, and perhaps has always, been divided by notions of who "we" are. I situate the books within the economics literature on populism, polarization, and institutions, and examine what we can learn about rebuilding both prosperity and democratic resilience in the United States.

Citation

Stevenson, Betsey. 2026. "When Democracy Falters: A Multidisciplinary, Multi-book Review Essay on Polarization, Populism, and Authoritarianism." Journal of Economic Literature 64 (2): 679–97. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20251778

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D02 Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact
  • D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
  • D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
  • J11 Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
  • J15 Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
  • Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification