Recent BooksSeptember/October 2019 231destabilize U.S. democracy. They
suggest, however, that Trump’s norm-
breaking behavior could generate “a
democratic backlash” that rejuvenates
liberal institutions.Transnational Organized Crime in Latin
America and the Caribbean: From
Evolving Threats and Responses to
Integrated, Adaptive Solutions
BY R. EVAN ELLIS. Lexington Books,
2018, 236 pp.Ellis is a proli¿c defense intellectual
who recently joined the U.S. State
Department’s Policy Planning Sta. In
this comprehensive and thoughtful
book, he underscores the serious threat
to U.S. national interests posed by
organized criminal groups in Latin
America. Ellis usefully catalogs the
major groups and evaluates the uneven
eorts by national governments to
combat them. He ¿nds, controversially,
that the formerly distinct roles assigned
to militaries and police forces are
outdated in an era in which borders are
ever less relevant to security. He also
judiciously warns against desperate,
short-term measures, arguing instead for
“persistent, adaptive and eectively
sequenced” approaches coordinated
across government agencies. Ellis pleads
for close collaboration among partner
governments based on “mutual respect
and trust” and for governments to learn
from one another’s experiences. The
Trump administration’s new Latin
America hand issues a pointed warning
against “attempting to isolate the
United States behind a wall that is high
enough to permit its residents to be
indierent concerning the conditions
beyond it.”Western Hemisphere
Richard Feinberg
When Democracy Trumps Populism:
European and Latin American Lessons for
the United States
EDITED BY KURT WEYLAND AND
RAÚL L. MADRID. Cambridge
University Press, 2019, 236 pp.I
n this welcome antidote to the
many dire warnings that U.S.
President Donald Trump could end
liberal democracy in the United States,
a group o seasoned political scientists
express con¿dence that U.S. institu-
tions will endure. In contrast to more
vulnerable nations where authoritarian
populists have triumphed—although
not as frequently as alarmists often
suggest—the United States has strong
institutions, and the U.S. Constitution
is notoriously dicult to amend. The
United States’ well-established two-
party system and its deep civil society
and independent media have resisted
Trump’s power grabs. And the very
political polarization that helped Trump
win oce impedes him from gathering
the overwhelming majority he would
need to engineer a radical transforma-
tion. Moreover, Trump has not so far
faced a crisis that he could use to
mobilize majoritarian support, and even
a national security blowup is likely to
boost his popularity only brieÇy. At the
same time, Weyland and Madrid
recognize that serious shortcomings,
including political gridlock, the undue
inÇuence o money in politics, and
rising social inequality could eventually