It’s only February, but I’m going to bet money that this will be the most powerful and influential book I will read this year.

American democracy was unprecedented when it was conceived in the 18th century, but it has become out-of-date, falling behind democracy in countries around the world, and it is in need of reform. Our checks and balances are failing. Democracy thrives with competition—and our system has unfairly granted an advantage to an entrenched minority, which has damaged the spirit of a fair fight that keeps the system evolving. Our Constitution isn’t perfect—and the Founding Fathers knew it, and intended it to be improved by later generations.

Levitsky and Ziblatt trace the rise and fall of democracy in countries around the world over the last 300 years, identifying universal principles that make democracies stronger or that cause them to fail. The comparisons of democracies in different countries over the decades was fascinating and illuminating. The strong focus on American history and the process by which our current government was cobbled together, improved, abused, improved again, abused again…it does away with the flawed thinking that our Constitution was carefully crafted in every point with all possibilities foreseen and provided for by omniscient, all-wise founders. They were just a bunch of guys experimenting, limited by their own experiences, cultures, and biases. The Constitution isn’t sacred. It was meant to evolve—and it must, to preserve democracy.

The first seven chapters left me feeling pretty hopeless about ever seeing positive reform—things like protecting voter rights, shifting to a popular vote for president, instituting term limits for the Supreme Court, ending the senate filibuster—especially considering the current rise of authoritarianism in America. But the final chapter was full of hope, practical suggestions, and good ideas, drawn from a history of how reforms have succeeded in the past. Consider this quote:

“Even if many of our proposals are unlikely to be adopted in the near term, it is essential that ideas for constitutional reform become part of a larger national political debate. The most powerful weapon against change is silence. When an idea is viewed in mainstream circles as impossible, when politicians never mention it, when newspaper editors ignore it, when teachers don’t bring it up in class, when scholars stop talking about it for fear of being seen as naïve or out of touch—in short, when an ambitious idea is “unthinkable”—the battle is lost. Non-reform becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

We’re at a crossroads. This book needs to be part of the national conversation about what America becomes. I highly recommend it to every American, whether you’re concerned about the state of politics or not.