How Democracy Ends by David Runciman review - what Trump and Corbyn have in common
(The Guardian Greece)

A wonderful, contrarian book captures Twitter-era politics and the danger of allowing democracy to be eroded from within`Democracy dies in darkness` runs the slogan on the Washington Post masthead, but if democracy really is dying around us, its demise has never been so loudly heralded nor so brightly lit. Even before Donald Trump´s emergence as a presidential candidate, it was clear that the global trend away from authoritarian regimes to democratic ones had slowed down; his rise was accompanied by a barrage of authors´ warnings that we are heading back into the 1930s. Never have the last days of Weimar seemed so worthy of study. Historians have developed a nice sideline in self-help manuals for a life of underground resistance to tyranny.David Runciman´s bracingly intelligent new book is both a contribution to this debate and a refutation of it. How Democracy Ends shares the widespread sense that representative democracy is not doing well, but argues powerfully against screaming fascism at every turn. History, as Runciman states at the outset, does not repeat itself. The challenge he sets himself is to use the past to see what has happened to democracy today, in particular to diagnose its ailments, without assuming that the only alternative is the one imprinted on our collective memory.The most successful democratic politicians are the ones who try to turn parties into social movements Related: Punch and Judy Politics review - the unique ordeal of Prime Minister´s Questions Continue reading...