Description
Book SynopsisNadia Urbinati diagnoses the ills besetting the body politic and offers a defense of the messy compromises that define democracy. She focuses less on democracy’s enemies than on those who pose as its friends: technocrats, partisan demagogues, and media operatives who turn governance into a spectator sport of winners, losers, and fans.
Trade ReviewA beautifully wrought reflection on the ‘disfigurement’ of democracy. Deploying the ancient analogy and image of the body—as in ‘body politic’—Urbinati traces the theoretical sources and consequences of three deformations that have been introduced over time: the epistemic, the populist, and the plebiscitarian. All, the author argues, are ‘negative mutations of the procedural character of democracy.’ -- Terence Ball, Arizona State University
Urbinati’s book is sure to unsettle current debates, with its provocative critique of democratic ‘disfigurations’ and the theories that she says misjudge them—either by depoliticizing public opinion, neglecting the danger of its populist manipulation, or reducing it to citizen voyeurism. -- John Medearis, University of California, Riverside
