Previous
Benito Mussolini
Richard Nixon was the president of the United States from 1969 to 1974. He is best remembered for the Watergate scandal, which centered on his numerous abuses of power—like surveilling opponents, manipulating neutral regulatory agencies for political gain, and most famously, ordering a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that Nixon is the only modern American president besides Donald Trump to have exhibited authoritarian tendencies. However, they note that democratic norms stopped Nixon’s misbehavior: Congress investigated his actions and forced him out of office after the Watergate scandal. In contrast, with democratic norms weakened in the 21st century, Trump wasn’t punished for abusing his office in similar ways as Nixon.
Get the entire How Democracies Die LitChart as a printable PDF.
Richard Nixon Character Timeline in How Democracies Die
The timeline below shows where the character Richard Nixon appears in How Democracies Die. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5: The Guardrails of Democracy
...throughout U.S. history—for instance, they limited executive power after the Civil War and forced Richard Nixon out of office after the Watergate scandal.
(full context)
Chapter 6: The Unwritten Rules of American Politics
Finally, Richard Nixon portrayed Democrats as traitorous enemies, used intelligence agencies against them, and famously tried to sabotage...
(full context)
Chapter 7: The Unraveling
...rights and pro-segregation factions. Then, President Johnson embraced the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and Presidents Nixon and Reagan campaigned on thinly veiled racial rhetoric. Many Southern white voters switched to the...
(full context)
