"What is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist? Astra Taylor, hailed as a "New Civil Rights Leader" (LA Times), provides surprising answers. 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...

"Today, democracy is the world's only broadly accepted political system, and yet it has become synonymous with disappointment and crisis. How did it come to this? In [this book], James Miller, author of the classic history of 1960s protest "Democracy Is in the Streets", offers a lively, surprising, and urgent history of the democratic idea from its first stirrings to the present."--Dust jacket.

This work argues that at populism's core is a rejection of pluralism. Populists will always claim that they and they alone represent the people and their true interests. Müller also shows that, contrary to conventional wisdom, populists can govern on the basis of their claim to exclusive moral representation of the people: if populists have enough power, they will end up creating an authoritarian state that excludes all those not considered part...

"Lucien Jaume argues in this acclaimed intellectual biography, Democracy in America is best understood as a French book. For Tocqueville, America was a mirror for France, a way for Tocqueville to write indirectly about his own society, to engage French thinkers and debates, and to come to terms with France's aristocratic legacy."--

"In The Paradox of Democracy: New Media and the Eternal Problem of Politics, Sean Illing and Zac Gershberg argue that, although free speech and media has always been a necessary condition of democracy, that very freedom also is its greatest threat. Free speech gives those who would destroy democracy license to mislead the public, using whatever forms of media are available. New forms of media offer opportunities to both supporters and critics of democracy....

Thomas Jefferson proposed that we revise the Constitution every so often, not just to reflect the changing times but to revive and perpetuate our original revolutionary spirit. Could it be that the Constitution itself is part of the reason that our democracy is on life support, our government gone haywire? To find out, Christopher Phillips, originator of the Socrates Café dialogues, sets off on a cross-country junket to engage Americans of all stripes...