Democracy in Retreat
eBook - PDF

Democracy in Retreat

The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline of Representative Government

  1. 288 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

Democracy in Retreat

The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline of Representative Government

About this book

A challenge to conventional wisdom about the spread of democracy

Since the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats.

But what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible.

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Yes, you can access Democracy in Retreat by Joshua Kurlantzick in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & 20th Century History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Democracy 
Goes 
into 
Reverse 
33
tant 
to 
stand 
up 
for 
their 
values, 
or 
pursuing 
democracy 
promotion 
strate-
gies 
that 
too 
often 
focused 
on 
rhetoric, 
elections, 
and 
process, 
the 
international 
environment 
has 
become 
far 
more 
complicated 
and 
challenging 
for 
democ-
racy 
in 
the 
new 
millennium. 
And 
far 
too 
often, 
men 
and 
women 
in 
the 
developing 
world 
have 
paid 
the 
price 
for 
these 
failures 
of 
democracy 
pro-
motion.

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. Acknowledgments
  3. 1. Democracy Goes into Reverse
  4. 2. How We Got Here
  5. 3. The Fourth Wave
  6. 4. It’s the Economy, Stupid: The Consensus Fails
  7. 5. The Middle Class Revolts
  8. 6. Graft, Graft, and More Graft
  9. 7. The China Model
  10. 8. The Autocrats Strike Back
  11. 9. Failure of the Emerging Powers
  12. 10. Failure of the West
  13. 11. Prescriptions for the Future
  14. Appendix: Egypt
  15. Notes
  16. Index