Stephen E. Hanson is the Lettie Pate Evans Professor of Government at William & Mary. He is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles on Russian, post-communist, and European politics in comparative perspective.Jeffrey S. Kopstein is Dean's Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He has written widely on democracy and dictatorship, political violence, and comparative politics.

• Acknowledgements1. At the Precipice2. The Deep State Bogeyman3. Beyond the Democracy Debate4. How Vladimir Putin Resurrected Tsarism5. The Wave: From East to West6. Reclaiming the Modern StateNotes

A Foreign Affairs Best Books of 2025"A powerful and important account of attacks on the administrative state by elected officials in the West. A must-read for anyone troubled by the state of democracy in our world."Elton Skendaj, Georgetown University"A thoughtful and probing discussion of the great challenges facing the democratic state. Powerful and exceptionally well-researched, The Assault on the State has enormous implications for governance in the modern era."Don Kettl, The University of Texas at Austin"Every once in a while, a book comes along that fundamentally reshapes how we think about the central problems facing our societies. This is that kind of book. With verve and sparkling clarity, Hanson and Kopstein make clear that the assault on the modern state is a phenomenon with global reverberations. This is an essential book – to defend the values of liberalism and democracy, we need to defend the modern state itself."Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University, co-author Tyranny of the Minority"An incisive, thoughtful, and spirited analysis of how personalist rule is assaulting and replacing the state – and what we can do about it. A must-read."Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University"An extraordinarily important book."James Goldgeier, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution"In this sobering book, Hanson and Kopstein cogently explain why defending the administrative state from would-be political 'father figures' is the key battle of our times."Juliet Johnson, McGill University"...short, clearly written and dreadfully important. It does not advocate this or that political or economic theory. It does not even particularly defend democracy. It gives us the unwelcome but unavoidable news that state bureaucracy – the thing we love to hate, the pantomime villain of politics, the second best source of jokes after mothers-in-law – is crucial to our happiness, freedom and well-being, and is in mortal danger."Francis Beckett, The Spectator"Hanson and Kopstein persuasively argue that the long-term impact of this global backlash against 'unelected bureaucrats' will lead not to freer societies but to ones marked by corrupt and personalistic authoritarian rule."Foreign Affairs"... deserves wide attention."The Atlantic"Hanson and Kopstein make a short, compelling case that an assault on the state is unlikely to return us to a romanticized freer era."Literary Review of Canada

Stephen E. Hanson is the Lettie Pate Evans Professor of Government at William & Mary. He is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles on Russian, post-communist, and European politics in comparative perspective.Jeffrey S. Kopstein is Dean's Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He has written widely on democracy and dictatorship, political violence, and comparative politics.

• Acknowledgements1. At the Precipice2. The Deep State Bogeyman3. Beyond the Democracy Debate4. How Vladimir Putin Resurrected Tsarism5. The Wave: From East to West6. Reclaiming the Modern StateNotes

A Foreign Affairs Best Books of 2025"A powerful and important account of attacks on the administrative state by elected officials in the West. A must-read for anyone troubled by the state of democracy in our world."Elton Skendaj, Georgetown University"A thoughtful and probing discussion of the great challenges facing the democratic state. Powerful and exceptionally well-researched, The Assault on the State has enormous implications for governance in the modern era."Don Kettl, The University of Texas at Austin"Every once in a while, a book comes along that fundamentally reshapes how we think about the central problems facing our societies. This is that kind of book. With verve and sparkling clarity, Hanson and Kopstein make clear that the assault on the modern state is a phenomenon with global reverberations. This is an essential book – to defend the values of liberalism and democracy, we need to defend the modern state itself."Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University, co-author Tyranny of the Minority"An incisive, thoughtful, and spirited analysis of how personalist rule is assaulting and replacing the state – and what we can do about it. A must-read."Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University"An extraordinarily important book."James Goldgeier, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution"In this sobering book, Hanson and Kopstein cogently explain why defending the administrative state from would-be political 'father figures' is the key battle of our times."Juliet Johnson, McGill University"...short, clearly written and dreadfully important. It does not advocate this or that political or economic theory. It does not even particularly defend democracy. It gives us the unwelcome but unavoidable news that state bureaucracy – the thing we love to hate, the pantomime villain of politics, the second best source of jokes after mothers-in-law – is crucial to our happiness, freedom and well-being, and is in mortal danger."Francis Beckett, The Spectator"Hanson and Kopstein persuasively argue that the long-term impact of this global backlash against 'unelected bureaucrats' will lead not to freer societies but to ones marked by corrupt and personalistic authoritarian rule."Foreign Affairs"... deserves wide attention."The Atlantic"Hanson and Kopstein make a short, compelling case that an assault on the state is unlikely to return us to a romanticized freer era."Literary Review of Canada

Stephen E. Hanson is the Lettie Pate Evans Professor of Government at William & Mary. He is the author of numerous scholarly books and articles on Russian, post-communist, and European politics in comparative perspective.Jeffrey S. Kopstein is Dean's Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He has written widely on democracy and dictatorship, political violence, and comparative politics.

• Acknowledgements1. At the Precipice2. The Deep State Bogeyman3. Beyond the Democracy Debate4. How Vladimir Putin Resurrected Tsarism5. The Wave: From East to West6. Reclaiming the Modern StateNotes

A Foreign Affairs Best Books of 2025"A powerful and important account of attacks on the administrative state by elected officials in the West. A must-read for anyone troubled by the state of democracy in our world."Elton Skendaj, Georgetown University"A thoughtful and probing discussion of the great challenges facing the democratic state. Powerful and exceptionally well-researched, The Assault on the State has enormous implications for governance in the modern era."Don Kettl, The University of Texas at Austin"Every once in a while, a book comes along that fundamentally reshapes how we think about the central problems facing our societies. This is that kind of book. With verve and sparkling clarity, Hanson and Kopstein make clear that the assault on the modern state is a phenomenon with global reverberations. This is an essential book – to defend the values of liberalism and democracy, we need to defend the modern state itself."Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard University, co-author Tyranny of the Minority"An incisive, thoughtful, and spirited analysis of how personalist rule is assaulting and replacing the state – and what we can do about it. A must-read."Anna Grzymala-Busse, Stanford University"An extraordinarily important book."James Goldgeier, Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution"In this sobering book, Hanson and Kopstein cogently explain why defending the administrative state from would-be political 'father figures' is the key battle of our times."Juliet Johnson, McGill University"...short, clearly written and dreadfully important. It does not advocate this or that political or economic theory. It does not even particularly defend democracy. It gives us the unwelcome but unavoidable news that state bureaucracy – the thing we love to hate, the pantomime villain of politics, the second best source of jokes after mothers-in-law – is crucial to our happiness, freedom and well-being, and is in mortal danger."Francis Beckett, The Spectator"Hanson and Kopstein persuasively argue that the long-term impact of this global backlash against 'unelected bureaucrats' will lead not to freer societies but to ones marked by corrupt and personalistic authoritarian rule."Foreign Affairs"... deserves wide attention."The Atlantic"Hanson and Kopstein make a short, compelling case that an assault on the state is unlikely to return us to a romanticized freer era."Literary Review of Canada