Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence

From author of the Globe and Mail bestseller, Claws of the Panda, comes a book quite literally for our times, a thoughtful account of how we can save democracies from the despots and populists who provide the easy answers to complicated situations, dumbing political discourse down to sandbox antics.

 

Manthorpe argues that democracy is more resilient than it appears, and is capable of overcoming the attacks from within and without that have sapped its vigour since the end of the Cold War. Russia and China have met with considerable success in their attacks on democracy. As well, internal pressures and contradictions — wealth disparity chief among them –feed the populists who spout platitudes to abandoned workers without actually offering them ways to catch up. Adding to the pressures building on the political norms of our democracies, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a kind of economic and social stand-still for which no country is prepared.

 

Restoring Democracy sets out the key dangers and what we — as individuals as well as societies — can do to protect it.