Democratic Crossroads

Reviews / Votes

Amidst the breathless headlines about the global state of democracy, Richard Youngs has given us the rarest of goods--a work of nuance and qualified optimism. While the book dissects the unprecedented global challenges buffeting democracy, including climate change and the return of geopolitical conflict, it keenly explores the opportunities that they have opened for democratic renewal. Here is a timely call to rethink the role of the state and the parameters of liberalism if the democratic project is to emerge reenergized for a new era. * Kevin Casas-Zamora, Secretary General International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), former Vice President of Costa Rica * In this original and challenging book, Youngs teases out the ways in which crises are not automatically bad for democracy and can even open up opportunities for its renewal. He invites us to view our age of turmoil as one of relentless change that threatens incumbent governments, ideas, and structures of all varieties, democratic and authoritarian alike. * Mark Malloch-Brown, President of Open Society Foundations * The challenges to democracy are constantly evolving, and so are the possibilities for democracy to innovate and adapt. In this fascinating and timely study, democracy scholar Richard Youngs probes the impact of three global crises: climate change, COVID-19, and the new geopolitics of authoritarian aggression. He shows how these challenges are stimulating both stronger and more resolute action by democratic states and 'a new spirit of civic micropolitics' at the local level. In tracing state and societal responses across the globe, Youngs provides a refreshing counter to the current mood of pessimism about democratic decline. * Larry Diamond, Hoover Institution * A trumpet blast against resignation and pessimism: a spirited defence of a new democratic politics of curbing ecological destruction, social injustice, and disastrous wars. * John Keane, University of Sydney, author of The Life and Death of Democracy *