Just Finished Reading: Democracy – A Very Short Introduction by Bernard Crick.
Yes, it’s another VSI book [grin]. This one covered to surprisingly complicated idea called Democracy. In 120 pages Professor Crick covered just what we mean by the word Democracy (and how it can be manipulated to mean lots of different things to lots of people), the history of the idea – as well as how recently what we regard as Democracy actually emerged – as well as how it relates to other idea such as Republicanism and Populism.
Whilst not as attention-grabbing (at least to me) as the previous books in this series discussing various ethical or philosophical subjects, this was certainly a readable work. I was kind of surprised at just how difficult the author found a reasonable definition of Democracy to be. I also found it very sobering to see just how young even the ‘Great’ democracies really are – and how rare. A good read for anyone interested in political ideas and history.
About Me
- CyberKitten
- I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.
2 comments:
I also found it very sobering to see just how young even the ‘Great’ democracies really are – and how rare.
Indeed. The world has seen much more totalitarianism, theocracy, pseudo-fascism, and oligarchy than it's ever seen anything else.
Democracy is a pretty good form of government. It even may arguably be the best we've thought up so far - but it certainly isn't the only form that works.
We've been a Monarchy for the best part of 1000 years and for most of that time most people have lived an OK life. Likewise Oligarchies work as do some Dictatorships, at least for a while.
I'm glad that I was fortunate to be born in a liberal secular democracy though. It's not the best place to live - but its OK. It'll do for me.
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