Democracy Against Liberalism

Its Rise and Fall
1. Auflage 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5095-4120-1
Verlag: Polity Press

Buch, Englisch, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 140 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 408 g

It should not surprise anyone that democracies can become dangerously illiberal; indeed, it was one of the classical critiques of ancient democracies. Is the contemporary backlash against liberal democracy merely the same old story, or are we witnessing something unprecedented? 

In this witty and engaging book, Aviezer Tucker argues that the contemporary revival of authoritarian populism combines the historically familiar with new technologies to produce a highly unstable and contagious new synthesis that threatens basic liberal norms, from freedom of the press to independent judiciaries. He examines how the economic crisis blocked social mobility and thereby awakened the dark, dormant political passions exploited by demagogues such as Orban and Trump. He argues that this slide towards ‘neo-illiberal democracy’ can be countered if we hard-headedly restore a ‘liberalism without nostalgia’ which institutes policies that can dampen down populist passions and strengthen liberal institutional barriers against them. 

Readers interested in current affairs, social science, history, and political and social theory will find Aviezer Tucker’s original theoretical and historical analysis incisive, innovative, and entertaining.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Tucker, Aviezer

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Theorie, Politische Philosophie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Demokratie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1 What’s Your Problem? Illiberalism, Populism, Authoritarianism
Democracy vs. Authoritarianism

Liberalism vs. Absolutism

Populism vs. Technocracy

Eight Regimes

The Scope of Neo-Illiberal Democracy

Weimar, Jackson, Singapore

Plan of the Book

2 Illiberal Democracy: Old Hemlock in Plastic Cups

The Self-Destruction of Absolute Democracy

Neo-Illiberal Unbalancing of the Liberal Checks

The Judiciary

Civil Service

Civil Society and Independent Institutions

Unmediated Politics

Media

Disinformation

Populism as Wishful Thinking

Historical Amnesia and Sisyphean Politics

Neo-Illiberalism is not Neo-Nationalist

Neo-Illiberalism is not an Over-Reaction to Immigration

Neo-Illiberalism is not Confused Socialism

3 All the Roads Lead to Caesarea

Post-Post-Totalitarian Pathway

Path Dependency II

A House Divided: Prognostic Instability

Budapest on the Potomac

The Surf Beaches of Utopia

Dynamic Equilibria

4 It Ain’t Necessarily So: The Historical Evitability of Neo-Illiberal Democracy

Historical Evitability

A Contemporary Case for Economic Inevitability

What happened?

Contingencies

Hungary

Brexit

Trump

5 New Liberalism without Nostalgia

Preempting Populism

Universal Basic Income

Dispersing the Anonymous Mob: Tracing Electronic Origins

Historical Education and Commemoration

Breaking the Glass Barriers to Mobility

Geographic Mobility

Strengthening Liberal Institutions

Democratic Election Systems

New Liberalism without Nostalgia

References

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Aviezer Tucker is a political theorist and philosopher. He is an Associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, where he works on post-totalitarianism and the philosophy of history. He is the author of The Legacies of Totalitarianism (2015) and Our Knowledge of the Past: A Philosophy of Historiography (2004).