The deconsolidation of Democracy: is it new and what can be done about it?
The deconsolidation of Democracy: is it new and what can be done about it?
Democracy in the United States and Europe is said to be at the crossroads. I review five recent books that seek to diagnose and cure this ‘crisis’. Explanations range from institutional dysfunction and elite maleficence to technological change and rising economic inequality. Remedies include everything from institutional engineering to moral persuasion. Collectively, the books raise two important questions: is this really a crisis and if it is, can democratisation theory, the branch of political science dedicated to explaining why regimes rise and fall, tell us why? I conclude that if we are to explain the deconsolidation of well-established democracies in which all of the usual pre-conditions had been met, then we must first question the linear narrative about democracy being a naturally legitimate form of regime.
Corbett, Jack
ad651655-ac70-4072-a36f-92165e296ce2
Corbett, Jack
ad651655-ac70-4072-a36f-92165e296ce2
Abstract
Democracy in the United States and Europe is said to be at the crossroads. I review five recent books that seek to diagnose and cure this ‘crisis’. Explanations range from institutional dysfunction and elite maleficence to technological change and rising economic inequality. Remedies include everything from institutional engineering to moral persuasion. Collectively, the books raise two important questions: is this really a crisis and if it is, can democratisation theory, the branch of political science dedicated to explaining why regimes rise and fall, tell us why? I conclude that if we are to explain the deconsolidation of well-established democracies in which all of the usual pre-conditions had been met, then we must first question the linear narrative about democracy being a naturally legitimate form of regime.
Text
The Deconsolidation of Democracy revised
- Accepted Manuscript
Available under License Other.
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 5 March 2019
e-pub ahead of print date: 26 July 2019
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 429207
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/429207
PURE UUID: e2246762-8a97-4d0f-a475-009db481d2b1
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 22 Mar 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 07:40
Export record
Altmetrics
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics
