'Scintillating ... thought-provoking ... one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the subject.' - Observer
Democracy has died hundreds of times, all over the world. We think we know what that looks like: chaos descends and the military arrives to restore order, until the people can be trusted to look after their own affairs again. However, there is a danger that this picture is out of date.
Until very recently, most citizens of Western democracies would have imagined that the end was a long way off, and very few would have thought it might be happening before their eyes as Trump, Brexit and paranoid populism have become a reality.
David Runciman, one of the UK's leading professors of politics, answers all this and more as he surveys the political landscape of the West, helping us to spot the new signs of a collapsing democracy and advising us on what could come next.
'Scintillating ... thought-provoking ... one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the subject.' - Observer
Democracy has died hundreds of times, all over the world. We think we know what that looks like: chaos descends and the military arrives to restore order, until the people can be trusted to look after their own affairs again. However, there is a danger that this picture is out of date.
Until very recently, most citizens of Western democracies would have imagined that the end was a long way off, and very few would have thought it might be happening before their eyes as Trump, Brexit and paranoid populism have become a reality.
David Runciman, one of the UK's leading professors of politics, answers all this and more as he surveys the political landscape of the West, helping us to spot the new signs of a collapsing democracy and advising us on what could come next.
All political systems come to an end, even democracies - David Runciman shows us how to recognise the signs and how to think about what might come next.
David Runciman is Professor of Politics at Cambridge University and Head of the Department of Politics and International Studies. He is the author of five previous books, including Political Hypocrisy, The Confidence Trap and Politics (for the Ideas in Profile series). He writes regularly about politics for the London Review of Books and hosts the widely acclaimed weekly podcast Talking Politics.
Scintillating ... thought-provoking ... Runciman's flair for
turning a pithy and pungent phrase is one of the things to admire
about his writing. The cogency, subtlety and style with which he
teases out the paradoxes and perils faced by democracy makes this
one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the
subject.
*Observer*
Bracingly intelligent ... a wonderful read
*Guardian*
Presented in pellucid prose free of the jargon of academic
political science, How Democracy Ends is a strikingly readable and
richly learned contribution to understanding the world today ...
surely one of the most luminously intelligent books on politics to
have been published for many years.
*New Statesman*
Breezy yet incisive...Runciman may not have all the answers, but
there is certainly plenty of nourishment here.
*Geographical*
Full of intriguing new lines of thought
*FT*
Refreshingly, rather than a knicker-twisting diatribe about Trump
and Brexit, Runciman offers a thoughtful analysis about what
popular democracy means, and its alternatives.
*Spectator*
Refreshingly free of received and rehearsed wisdoms, Runciman
doesn't tiptoe around sacred cows and invites us to take part in
that most adult way of thinking: to examine contradictory ideas in
tandem and ponder what the dissonance amounts to. . . . [H]e argues
lucidly, persuasively, even exhilaratingly at times. The nightly
news will never appear exactly the same again
*Australian*
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