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Title:
Democracy may not exist, but we'll miss it when it's gone / Astra Taylor.
Author:
Taylor, Astra, author.
Publication Information:
New York, New York : Metropolitan Books, 2020.

@2019
Call Number:
JC423 .T3195 2020
Abstract:
There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of thieving plutocrats in the White House to campaign finance and gerrymandering, it is clear that democracy―specifically the principle of government by and for the people―is not living up to its promise. The problems lie deeper than any one elections cycle. As Astra Taylor demonstrates, real democracy―fully inclusive and completely egalitarian―has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and interviews with such leading thinkers as Cornel West, Danielle Allen, and Slavoj Zizek, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an end, a process or a set of desired outcomes? What if those outcomes, whatever they may be―peace, prosperity, equality, liberty, an engaged citizenry―can be achieved by non-democratic means? Or if an election leads to a terrible outcome? If democracy means rule by the people, what does it mean to rule and who counts as the people? Democracy's inherent paradoxes often go unnamed and unrecognized. Exploring such questions, Democracy May Not Exist offers a better understnading of what is possible, why democracy is so hard to realize and why it remains worth striving for.
Edition:
First Metropolitan Paperbacks Edition 2020.
ISBN:
9781250231284
Physical Description:
x, 357 pages ; 20 cm.
Contents:
Introduction: Living in the tension -- Free to be winners and losers (freedom/equality) -- Shouting as one (conflict/consensus) -- Reinventing the people (inclusion/exclusion) -- Choose this, or else! (coercion/choice) -- Is this what democracy looks like? (spontaneity/structure) -- A Socratic mob (expertise/mass opinion) -- New world order (local/global) -- A ruin or a habitation (present/future) -- Conclusion: From Founding Fathers to perennial midwives.
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