商品簡介
Prompted by the EU referendum in the UK and the presidential election in the USA, A. C. Grayling investigates why the institutions of representative democracy seem unable to hold up against forces they were designed to manage, and why, crucially, it matters.
First he considers moments in history — Periclean Athens, the English Civil War, the American and French Revolutions, among them — in which the challenges we face today were first encountered and what solutions, however imperfect, were found. Then he lays bare the specific problems of democracy in the twenty-first century and maps out a set of urgently needed reforms.
With the advent of authoritarian leaders and the simultaneous rise of populism, representative democracy appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place, yet it is this space that it must occupy, says Grayling, if a civilized society, that looks after all its people, is to flourish.
作者簡介
A. C. Grayling is Professor of Philosophy and Master of the New College of the Humanities, London. Among his many books are Towards the Light: The Story of the Struggle for Liberty and Rights that Made the Modern West, Liberty in the Age of Terror, The God Argument and The Age of Genius. He has been a regular contributor to The Times, Financial Times, Independent on Sunday, Guardian, Economist, New Statesman, Prospect and New European. He appears frequently on radio and TV, including Newsnight and CNN News, and is a popular speaker at festivals and debates. He lives in London.
