Placeholder text
The Shortest History of Democracy
By John Keane
0 - Default Title
Description
The best, most readable book on the radical potential of democracy.
Professor Takashi Inoguchi, Tokyo University
The roots of democracy stretch back beyond Athens to Syria-Mesopotamia and the Indian subcontinent, where citizens’ assemblies held privilege and power to account over 3,000 years before the French Revolution. In this timely and illuminating new global history, John Keane (‘one of the world’s leading political thinkers’ The Times) gets to the heart of a complex, ever-evolving ideal.
Today, American-style democracy may appear to be in decline, but Keane shows that this isn’t the whole story. In many places, such as Taiwan and Senegal, India and South Africa, distinctly local varieties are coming into being. Yet it’s impossible to ignore the proliferation of populist strongmen on every continent: the Putins and the Bolsonaros, the Trumps and Lukashenkos. Is democracy past its sell-by date, as they would have us believe? Or is it time to embrace the true, radical potential of an ancient idea?
Product details
Number of Pages:
256
Release Date:
2022-05-03
Publication Date:
2022-05-03
Publisher:
Old Street Publishing
Languages:
Published:
English,
Original:
English
ISBN10:
1913083217
Weight:
360 g
Currently sold out