Something is definitely wrong with Donald Trump’s presidency, but what exactly? The extraordinary negative reaction to Trump’s election - by conservative intellectuals, liberals, Democrats, and global leaders alike - goes beyond ordinary partisan and policy disagreements. It reflects genuine fear about the vitality of our constitutional system. The Founders, reaching back to classical precedents, feared that their experiment in self-government could produce a demagogue: a charismatic ruler who would gain and hold on to power by manipulating the public rather than by advancing the public good. President Trump, who has played to the mob and attacked institutions from the judiciary to the press, appears to embody these fears. How can we move past his rhetoric and maintain faith in our nation? In The Demagogue’s Playbook, acclaimed legal scholar Eric Posner offers a blueprint for how America can prevent the rise of a demagogue and protect the features of a democracy that help it thrive - and restore national greatness, for one and all.

ERIC A. POSNER teaches at the University of Chicago. He has written twelve books, more than one hundred articles on constitutional law, presidential power, and other topics, and opinion pieces for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, New Republic, Slate, and other popular news outlets. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute.