Rethinking Democracy

"There's never been a more pressing time to question every aspect of our inadequate democracy"- Polly Toynbee

"This important book shows the many challenges democracy faces in a world of populism and radical digital change" - Margaret Hodge

2018 saw celebrations of the centenary of the Representation of the People Act which marked a decisive step towards full universal suffrage - this collection of essays explores the problems of democracy and suggests ways it might now be extended and deepened.

• Investigates if democracy is an unfinished revolution and if democratic politics is currently in retreat
• Demonstrates how democratic politics is once again under attack - this time from populist nationalists, authoritarian rulers and new forms of political communication
• Argues that if we lose the art of active citizenship, we will lose the freedoms and the rights which democracy has bestowed

“"There's never been a more pressing time to question every aspect of our inadequate democracy" - Polly Toynbee "This important book shows the many challenges democracy faces in a world of populism and radical digital change" - Margaret Hodge”

"There's never been a more pressing time to question every aspect of our inadequate democracy."
—Polly Toynbee

"This important book shows the many challenges democracy faces in a world of populism and radical digital change."
—Margaret Hodge

Andrew Gamble is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield and Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Cambridge. His most recent books are Can the Welfare State Survive? (2016) and Politics: Why it Matters (forthcoming 2019). In 2005 he received the Isaiah Berlin Prize from the UK Political Studies Association for lifetime contribution to political studies.

Tony Wright is a former Labour MP and former editor of The Political Quarterly, now Professor of Government and Public Policy at University College London. He is currently preparing a new edition of his British Politics: A Very Short Introduction.

"There's never been a more pressing time to question every aspect of our inadequate democracy" - Polly Toynbee "This important book shows the many challenges democracy faces in a world of populism and radical digital change" - Margaret Hodge 2018 saw celebrations of the centenary of the Representation of the People Act which marked a decisive step towards full universal suffrage. Has democracy delivered what those who fought so hard to establish it a century ago hoped for? How far is it an unfinished revolution? Is democratic politics currently in retreat? We think our democracies are now so well established that they have become permanent and irreversible, but in politics, nothing is guaranteed, and what seems solid and impregnable in one era can seem fragile and vulnerable in the next. Democratic politics is once again under attack, this time from populist nationalists, authoritarian rulers and new forms of political communication. This collection of essays is a response to these issues, exploring the problems of democracy and suggesting ways it might be extended and deepened. Democracy is not a finished state. It is a living process and if there is no longer the will or the belief in its value, then it may not endure. If we lose the art of active citizenship, we will lose the freedoms and the rights which democracy has bestowed.

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