Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThere are few more important subjects than the future of democracy and few better people to analyze it than Samuel Issacharoff in this important and timely book. * Lord Mervyn King, former Governor, Bank of England *
How is it that democracy, worldwide, finds itself so threatened three decades after its apparent triumph over other forms of political ordering? This brilliant new book explains how a series of economic, technological, sociological, and legal shifts undermined the shared commitment to citizen self-government and the constellation of institutions necessary for democracies to flourish. An engaging and provocative, truly interdisciplinary, work. * Pamela S. Karlan, Stanford Law School *
An exceptional mastery of the historical background and structural conditions out of which have emerged the populist threat to democratic norms and institutions. This is a simply superb contribution to the urgent debate about the fate of liberal democracy. * Bob Bauer, New York University School of Law and former White House Counsel *
An insightful if troubling description of the ills of democracies around the world face as populism rises, and some prescriptions for how to cure the problems. This readable analysis contains important lessons for both the Right and Left if they hope to govern successfully in these uncertain and transformational times. * Ben Ginsburg, Hoover Institution; National Counsel, Romney for President for 2012; Bush-Cheney 2000, 2004 *
Democracy Unmoored is a brilliant and engaging addition that brings together thinking about the relationship between formal institutions and social mobilization in way that is unusual in the literature on populism. This is one of our foremost scholars of democracy in top form. The book is a must read if we want to understand our democratic predicament. * Pratap Bhanu Mehta, Laurence Rockefeller Visiting Professor, Princeton University *
Samuel Issacharoff is a cosmopolitan and global thinker with a keen understanding of the complexities and subtleties that led to the decline of contemporary democracies. This indispensable book is a warning, but also a source of hope in the struggle to push history in the right direction. * Justice Luís Roberto Barroso, Brazilian Federal Supreme Court *
Democracy Unmoored is original and insightful. * Walter Horn, 3:16 AM Magazine *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I: The World the Populists Found Chapter 1: The Frayed Social Fabric of Democracy Chapter 2: The Capacity to Govern Chapter 3: The Political Institutions of Democracy Part II: Politics Under Populism Chapter 4: Populism and the Here and Now Chapter 5: Caudillos in Command Chapter 6: Judicial Intercession Chapter 7: Corruption Simpliciter Chapter 8: Institutional Wreckage Part III: A Democratic Restoration? Chapter 9: The Exposed Underpinnings of American Democracy Epilogue: Glimmers of Hope?
