How Democracy Ends
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'Scintillating ... thought-provoking ... one of the very best of the great crop of recent books on the subject.' Andrew Rawnsley, 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 However, there is a danger that this picture is out of date.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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Political philosopher Runciman (The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis from World War I to the Present) provides a meandering exploration of "the malaise of contemporary democracy" and identifies various possible means by which it might end. Runciman contends that observers who worry about the collapse of democratic institutions all too often focus on signs of democratic failure familiar from the last century: "backsliding" into "fascism, violence, and world war." Rather, Runciman theorizes, democracy is going through a "midlife crisis," and when the end comes, "we are likely to be surprised by the form it takes." The book examines several potential democracy enders: coups, the lurking disasters of climate change or nuclear war, and technology or corporations running amok. It also considers potential replacements for democracy: pragmatic authoritarianism, epistocracy the distribution of power based on knowledge and submission to artificial intelligence. This work is thought-provoking about the defects of contemporary democratic politics, but the free-flowing and loose structure and Runciman's avoidance of claiming certainty can make it inconclusive and uninspiring. Those who welcome encouragement to consider all sides and avoid jumping to conclusions, however, will find this a reasoned and balanced analysis of the political moment.
