Democracy: Crisis and Renewal

by Paul Ginsborg

Political parties have lost swathes of members and effective power is ever more concentrated in the hands of their leaders. Behind these trends lie changing relationships between economics, the media and politics.

Electoral spending has spiralled out of all control, with powerful economic interests exercising undue influence. The 'level playing field', on which democracy's contests have supposedly been fought, has become ever more sloping and uneven. In many 'democratic' countries media coverage, especially that of television, is heavily biased. Electors become viewers and active participation gives way to mass passivity.

Can things change? By going back to the roots of democracy and examining the relationship between representative and participatory democracy, political historian Paul Ginsborg shows that they can and must.

Genres: Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Federico]

Molto interessante la comparazione fra Marx e Mill, interessante anche l'elencazione dei problemi insoluti della democrazia, un poco deboli le proposte per rivilitalizzare la democrazia (Ginsborg espone brevemente alcuni esempi di democrazia partecipativa, me niente piú): comunque, vale sicuramente la pena di leggerlo (forse non di comprarlo).