The End Of Representative Politics

Representative politics is in crisis. Trust in politicians is at an all-time low. Fewer people are voting or joining political parties, and our interest in parliamentary politics is declining fast. Even oppositional and radical parties that should be benefitting from public disenchantment with politics are suffering. But different forms of political activity are emerging to replace representative politics: instant politics, direct action, insurgent politics. We are leaving behind traditional representation, and moving towards a politics without representatives. In this provocative new book, Simon Tormey explores the changes that are underway, drawing on a rich range of examples from the Arab Spring to the Indignados uprising in Spain, street protests in Brazil and Turkey to the emergence of new initiatives such as Anonymous and Occupy. Tormey argues that the easy assumptions that informed our thinking about the nature and role of parties, and ‘party based democracy’ have to be rethought. We are entering a period of fast politics, evanescent politics, a politics of the street, of the squares, of micro-parties, pop-up parties, and demonstrations. This may well be the end of representative politics as we know it, but an exciting new era of political engagement is just beginning.

Our politics is broken, but it can be fixed. A real democracy is not only possible — it is an urgent necessity. Provocative, succinct and inspiring, The End of Politicians combines insights from the history of democracy with a critical understanding of the information revolution to explain how we can fix democracy by eliminating politicians and replacing them with a representative network of everyday citizens. A wealth of recent evidence has shown that groups of randomly selected, ordinary people can and do make balanced, informed and trusted decisions. These citizens' assemblies are legitimate, accountable, competent and, above all, convincing demonstrations that we can govern ourselves. The future of democracy has arrived. It is time for the end of politicians.

The far right is back with a vengeance. After several decades at the political margins, far-right politics has again taken center stage. Three of the world’s largest democracies – Brazil, India, and the United States – now have a radical right leader, while far-right parties continue to increase their profile and support within Europe. In this timely book, leading global expert on political extremism Cas Mudde provides a concise overview of the fourth wave of postwar far-right politics, exploring its history, ideology, organization, causes, and consequences, as well as the responses available to civil society, party, and state actors to challenge its ideas and influence. What defines this current far-right renaissance, Mudde argues, is its mainstreaming and normalization within the contemporary political landscape. Challenging orthodox thinking on the relationship between conventional and far-right politics, Mudde offers a complex and insightful picture of one of the key political challenges of our time.

Introduction: politics explained to idiots -- I. Who Does Politics? 1. Old and New Political Subjects -- 2. The End of Political Parties? 3. Politics of Recognition -- 4. Right to Decide? -- II. The Political Condition 5. Political Time -- 6. Political Discourse 7. Politics of Emotions 8. The Importance of Coming to an Agreement -- 9. The Democratic Deception -- III. Politics in Hard Times 10. The Age of Limits 11. Politics after Indignation 12. Democracy without Politics -- IV. Some Platitudes 13. Democracies of Representative Proximity and Distance -- 14. How Much Transparency Do Our Democracies Require and Tolerate? 15. The Importance and Limits of Raising the Moral Standards of Politics 16. What Remains on the Left and Right -- V. The Future of Politics 17. What is this thing called Governance? 18. Politics as an Intelligent Activity -- Index.

Politics in the Times of Indignation provides a critical look at Western liberal democracies in crisis, to provide us with the theoretical tools to make sense of the political disorientation of our times. Indispensable for understanding the present state of democratic societies, this book is a lens through which we can study numerous contemporary developments. He examines the popular indignation that has accompanied the crisis of governmental legitimacy, which is aggravated by the economic crisis in various countries and demonstrated by groups such as the Occupy Wall Street Movement in the US, Podemos in Spain, or La France Insoumise in France. At the same time, Innerarity endeavors to offer a universal, rather than a merely circumstantial, interpretation of the transformations that are still ongoing in our political systems, as well as of those that need to be put in place in order to satisfy the expectations and rights of democratic citizenship. Politics in the Times of Indignation represents a guiding thread through political developments, as well as a conceptual tool-box for understanding the meaning of the current crisis of representation, the fate of political parties, the relation between ethics and politics, and how politics can become an intelligent enterprise.

This volume focuses on the issue of change in democratic politics in terms of experimental or actual innovations introduced either within political parties or outside the party system, involving citizen participation and mobilization. Including a wide and diverse range of alternatives in the organization of groups, campaigning, conducting initiatives and enhancing practices, they not only question the relevance of traditional institutions in representing citizens’ values and interests, but also share a common goal which is precisely – and perhaps paradoxically – to reshape and invigorate representative democracy This book is of key interest to scholars and students of party politics, elections/electoral studies, social movement and democratic innovations and more broadly to comparative politics, political theory and political sociology.

DIVSince the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats./divDIV /divDIVBut what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible./div