Product Details
Simon & Schuster UK, August 2009
Hardcover, 992 pages
ISBN-10: 0743231929
ISBN-13: 9780743231923
Read an Excerpt
Introduction
Description
John Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers. Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sure that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? Given all the recent fanfare about democracy promotion, why are many people now gripped by the feeling that a bad moon is rising over all the world's democracies? Do they indeed have a future? Or is perhaps democracy fated to melt away, along with our polar ice caps?
The work of one of Britain's leading political writers, this is no mere antiquarian history. Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy. It unearths the beginnings of such precious institutions and ideals as government by public assembly, votes for women, the secret ballot, trial by jury and press freedom. It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy. And it explains why democracy is still potentially the best form of government on earth -- and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble.
The work of one of Britain's leading political writers, this is no mere antiquarian history. Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy. It unearths the beginnings of such precious institutions and ideals as government by public assembly, votes for women, the secret ballot, trial by jury and press freedom. It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy. And it explains why democracy is still potentially the best form of government on earth -- and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble.
Read more:
IntroductionOpen Democracy, April 29, 2011
...to the grave dangers and high costs of using violent means to get their way About the author John Keane is Director of the newly-founded Sydney Democracy Initiative and Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney. His most recent book, ...
Melbourne Age, September 21, 2010
...After three decades abroad, this academic is enjoying a fresh Australian optimism. In July, when John Keane returned to live in Australia after 30 years in London, he was eager to escape Britain's post-GFC melancholia. Instead, what the ...
Brisbane Times, January 29, 2010
...In his new book The Life and Death of Democracy, the Australian-born and British-based politics professor John Keane argues that the 4500-year-old progress of democracy has just entered a new phase. Keane calls it ''monitory democracy ...
The Scotsman, December 2, 2009
...expenses scandal has eroded trust in the politicians who lead us, the question to be posed by Professor John Keane this weekend looks increasingly mainstream. His lecture at Dundee University will draw on themes raised in his latest book, ...
Abu Dhabi National, October 15, 2009
...invention. But this important revision, John Gray argues, does not add up to an argument for its necessityThe Life and Death of Democracy John Keane Simon & Schuster Dh174Writing in 1908, the German thinker Max Weber, one of the founding ...
Camden New Journal, July 23, 2009
...John Keane?s new book tells the story of democracy ? from the racy myth of its origins in Ancient Greece to the shifting model of the post-war world order, writes ...
