Joff Sharpe's Reviews > Rebooting Democracy: A Citizen's Guide to Reinventing Politics

According to Winston Churchill; “Democracy is the worst form of government….except all the others”- and the first part of this book pretty much explains why. But the phenomenon that is Donald Trump has made a lot of people think that the world’s greatest liberal democratic system is well past its sell-by date and ironically, its economic nemesis is a barely reformed China. So now is a very good time to think about “re-booting” and what that might look like.

But is it a good read? One of the early adopters of the book was the anarchic Russel Brand, which presumably generated some useful publicity but suggests to a prospective reader that it will be puerile and impractical. This does Arriaga a disservice. He’s a published academic and he manages to make the book personal and passionate enough to keep things lively but avoids polemic nonsense. On the contrary, the second half of the book comprises a series of case studies that suggest how some fairly radical surgery can be applied to democracy in real-world situations. So, whilst this book isn’t for everybody, if you’re scratching your head and wondering how Donald Trump became a serious US presidential candidate, this could be both instructive and enjoyable.