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Democracy and Its Crisis, by A. C. Grayling
Ebook Free Democracy and Its Crisis, by A. C. Grayling
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Review
PRAISE FOR THE AGE OF GENIUS (2016)"[A] sweeping, lively historical survey . . . Another thought-provoking winner from Grayling." (―Kirkus Reviews)PRAISE FOR THE GOD ARGUMENT (2013)"Debunks the teleological, ontological and cosmological arguments employed throughout Christendom for the literal existence of God. Those looking for a succinct analysis of these centuries old debates will appreciate Grayling's insights." (―The Washington Post, "On Faith")"In an excoriating forthcoming book, Democracy and Its Crisis, AC Grayling charts the way that American and British democracy…has become flabby, corrupt and hollowed out by narrow vested interests, big money and unrepresentative elites." (―Nick Clegg in The Independent)"...Grayling is right. The thought that plutocrats and oligarchs can fix what needs mending, or do anything much about the economic inequalities that have always threatened political stability, is difficult to countenance. In fact, it seems inconceivable." --The New York Times Book Review"Mr. Grayling incisively surveys attempts by Western thinkers, from Plato and Aristotle to Madison and Tocqueville, to resolve what he calls the 'dilemma of democracy': the tension between the belief that power belongs ultimately to the people, and the desire for stable and humane government." --Barton Swaim in The Wall Street Journal"Grayling is a natural educator . . . He provides concise and helpful summaries of pertinent events and ideas." (―The Spectator)
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“Democracy and Its Crisis,†by A.C. Grayling, British philosopher, historian and recent guest at George Mason’s Hayden Center. A fast and fascinating read―especially for philosophy―about the origins of democracy, its challenges and what we might do to preserve it. Clear thinking about first principles has never been more needed and Grayling delivers. (Gen. (ret.) Michael Hayden, former CIA and NSA director)
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Product details
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Oneworld Publications (October 17, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1786072890
ISBN-13: 978-1786072894
Product Dimensions:
5.2 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.7 out of 5 stars
12 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#820,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I advocate moderation in the application of democracy because we seem to expect too much from politics and governance. In a complex pluralistic society with competing needs, the most we should expect, or desire, is stability, consistency, coherence, competency and predictability. The last thing that should be expected or desired is the implementation of an agenda, an ideology or a philosophy or anything smelling of an ‘-ism. By this, I am not advocating weak government or even smaller or less government necessarily, but a government that is strong and active in performing those essential public roles that only government can fulfill which I hope are obvious enough to require no further reiteration here. For example, property is a private good, but property rights are a public good and without a strong and competent government, there will no property rights and thus no private property. It is too often the case that under our current neo-liberal paradigm, political issues reduce to the problems of the individual and private fantasy becomes public currency.Most often, political change comes from elites with democracy being a form of regime change without violence. It is fantasy to believe that with democracy we are selecting the best qualified leaders and administrators. The true crisis of democracy occurs when the citizens stop trusting the elites, not when there is voter apathy or lack of participation. Democracy does not empower individuals, it empowers collectives of which individuals are only the smallest part thereby dis-empowering individuals. The problem is that democracy is premised upon empowering an electorate to govern which is itself unfit to govern thus opening the system to manipulation and corruption which renders the entire system self-defeating. The electorate is unfit to govern or even give informed consent to be governed for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are its uninformed, uncritical, self-interested and myopic nature. This is essentially the Platonic critique of democracy and it is still valid. The Platonic critique is still valid because the electorate is nothing other than it can be and no amount of enfranchisement, participation or civic education will change it because of who and what we are and remain as human beings as observed by Plato. Given that we accept that democracy is still the least bad system of governance yet tried, the solution lies not in eliminating the current system, not in finding a new system or even in improving the current system. The solution is to limit the scope of the current system and apply it with moderation to those essential tasks to which it is best suited. But is this possible? The political order in any manner conceived will be, will become and will remain distorted and dysfunctional. This why the liberal-capitalist- humanitarian-democratic order is just a mask for the brutal reality of power.Democracy and aristocracy, for that matter capitalism and socialism are all just abstractions. It does no good to say that democracy is fair and aristocracy unfair or that capitalism is rapacious but efficient and that socialism is benevolent but inefficient. These are just labels; abstractions from reality. The reality is us. If we want more humane politics, more rational economics, and a more sensible civil order then we must become more humane, more rational and more sensible people. The method of political, economic or social organization is just beside the point. We can have any so called ‘system’ we desire but its outcomes will be governed by who we are as human beings. For example, China seems to be making a form of ‘authoritarian capitalism’ work, this we are told is theoretically impossible based on ‘system’ logic. Socialism, for all its theoretical flaws, seems to work in Denmark, etc. However, in the case of both, history still has time to make a judgement. For example, China is a great replicator, but can it become an innovator as is the U.S.? That is, can China become an innovator in science, medicine and technology without political plurality, strong property right and a reliable rule of law? We must ask ourselves, is capitalist economic organization entering a new phase where political liberty and representation are no longer needed? Is the economy becoming incompatible with the social structure? That is, there is no guarantee that a successor system to capitalism will be more progressive or conducive to human flourishing.In any case, the answers are to be found where the problems are to be found, with us and within us. What gets translated into governance via the ‘system’ will depend entirely upon the character of the people that comprise the ‘system’. This is a matter of social and cultural evolution, or devolution as the case may be. The ‘system’ of governance is emergent from the underlying social consensus and complexity. Is the social consensus headed in the right direction? Is the social consensus itself the product of manipulation? The key question being, can we evolve fast enough to head off our own shortsighted foolishness. We cannot keep politics out of governance, or can we? In any case, it is not from our sinfulness, but our foolishness that we need to be saved. But we must save ourselves, is this possible?
Our democracy is in danger. This book looks at its conception and priniples. This is confronted by Brexit and Trumpism breaking down society along the weak points recognised centuries ago.
Realistic concern about present state of "democracy" ,in U.S. and U.K., and by inference, in other Western countries.
All I can say is WOW!! A must read.
This book presents a comprehensive overview of the formation of us and British democracies, what has gone wrong with them and recommendations for solving current problems.
Democracy is not a fixed state. It is a concept, different to everyone at different times. It is continually evolving. As time goes on and attitudes change, the vote has been given to non-landowners and women, for example. In the original, in ancient Greece, voters had to be white adult male citizens who adhered to the state religion. Not a real democracy, but a good start.Democracy and Its Crisis follows it through its many mutations and variations, from various People’s Republics of Murderous Dictatorship to the ossified, cobweb-encrusted American version, and the hypocritical and fraudulent British version. Most of it is speculation from philosophers, because democracy was not widespread until the last century. So everyone’s concept was valid, if blue-sky. The evidence of its many faults and inconsistencies is plainly out in front of us, and assembling it here points to the staggering failures, inefficiencies and frauds of this best of the worst systems.There is a special condemnation of factions as Madison called what we know as parties. They corrupt the process and the execution, Whips ensure members vote as instructed, and party policy is more important than facts on the ground in the home constituency, or compromise with other parties. It has meant the most qualified steer clear of elected office, leaving voters with poor choices. So fewer and fewer bother to vote at all.Grayling lays out the facts – they are not hard to find. His solutions are all reasonable and essentially impossible. He wants the vote to be mandatory and to begin at 16. He wants civics lessons to begin at 14. He wants proportional representation, because no one represents the voters who did not vote for the winner. That winner usually earns less than half the population and represents nothing. For example, in the Brexit referendum, only 37% of the electorate voted For (ie. Leave), and they represented just 26% of the adult population. So was democracy effective? Grayling would like to ensure it is by adapting the structure to our realities.Because the real crisis of democracy is not fixed, either. It needs constant vigilance to ward off the ever-evolving corruption of parties, lobbies, those with ulterior motives, who have no intention of working for the common good but only to enrich themselves by offering to further enrich the rich, or gerrymandering or constituencies with no voters or that don’t even exist, and so on. It’s a task without end.David Wineberg
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