Taking Control

Reviews / Votes

"This is the most important book to come out of the struggles over Britain's membership of the EU, and it makes all other works on the subject look trivial. The authors provide a profound analysis of the issues involved, and show how only thorough-going changes in Britain's political and constitutional arrangements will be able to respond to the challenges of this near-revolutionary moment."
-Richard Tuck, Professor of Government Theory, University of Harvard

"This book forcefully argues that Brexit was no more than the first step in a long process of rebuilding a democratic nation-state, indeed a democratic nation, out of the ruins of a politics without national sovereignty. Sovereign democracy requires effective institutions of civic representation that disempower a political elite content with ruling the void. This book is a breakthrough for democratic theory and a milestone for political debates on the future of democracy."
-Wolfgang Streeck, Emeritus Director, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne, Germany

"A crucial book for understanding the Brexit paradox: why it failed catastrophically to deliver on its promise to re-democratise British politics, but why it remains a necessary precondition for achieving just that."
-Thomas Fazi, Co-author Reclaiming the State and The Covid Consensus

"The condition of post-Brexit Britain is grim. This excellent book shows that this has little to do with having lost the putative benefits of EU membership. Far more important is the British state's steady incapacitation and the decay of neoliberal political parties. The promise of 'taking control' remains, but only if Britain undergoes a democratic and social transformation."
-Costas Lapavitsas, Professor of Economics, SOAS London

"A worthy contribution to our understanding of the EU, and to attempts to escape it."
-Morning Star

"Their critiques of the UK political establishment are trenchant and their proposals are far reaching... the wider message is important."
-Times Literary Supplement

"Brilliant."
-Matthew Goodwin, author of Values, Voice and Virtue

"[A]n urgent corrective of many of the left's misconceptions about Brexit"
-Sublation

"Eloquent and emphatic... an arresting prospectus for a new departure in UK politics."
-New Left Review