Is Democracy a Lost Cause?

Download or read book Is Democracy a Lost Cause? written by Alfio Mastropaolo and published by ECPR Press. This book was released on 2024-08-22 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Democracy a Lost Cause? explores the current debate on democracy. It starts by discussing the meaning of ‘democracy’ and how the understanding of this important political concept has either broadened or contracted, depending on changing political circumstances. Mastropaolo then poses the question of what it means for democracy to be the ‘government of the people’. He deals with the way in which democratic government has been affected by changes in the fabric of society, by the evolution of democratic theory itself, and by the transformations affecting the state and political parties. Political class and citizens’ attitudes towards democratic politics, increasingly characterised by resentment and often taking the form of an anti-politics, are analysed in the concluding chapters.