Democracy in the United States and Europe is said to be at the crossroads. I review five recent books that seek to diagnose and cure this ‘crisis’. Explanations range from institutional dysfunction and elite maleficence to technological change and rising economic inequality. Remedies include everything from institutional engineering to moral persuasion. Collectively, the books raise two important questions: is this really a crisis and if it is, can democratisation theory, the branch of political science dedicated to explaining why regimes rise and fall, tell us why? I conclude that if we are to explain the deconsolidation of well-established democracies in which all of the usual pre-conditions had been met, then we must first question the linear narrative about democracy being a naturally legitimate form of regime.
CanovanM (1999) Trust the People! Populism and the Two Faces of Democracy. Political Studies47 (1): 2–16.
2.
CarothersT (2002) The End of the Transition Paradigm. Journal of Democracy13 (1): 5–21.
3.
ChouM (2011) When Democracies Fail. Political Studies Review9 (3): 344–356.
4.
ChouM (2013) Theorising Democide: Why and How Democracies Fail. Berlin: Springer.
5.
ClarkeNJenningsWMossJ, et al. (2018) The Good Politician: Folk Theories, Political Interaction, and the Rise of Anti-Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
6.
CorbettJ (2014) But Why Do We Need Politicians? A Critical Review. Policy Studies35 (5): 498–512.
7.
CorbettJ (2016) Diagnosing the Problem of Anti-politicians: A Review and an Agenda. Political Studies Review14 (4): 534–543.
8.
CrozierMHuntingtonSPWatanukiJ (1975) The Crisis of Democracy: Report on the Governability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission, vol. 30. New York: New York University Press.
9.
DaltonRJ (2004) Democratic Challenges, Democratic Choices: The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies (Comparative Politics). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
10.
DasandiN (2018) Is Democracy Failing?: A Primer for the 21st Century. London: Thames & Hudson.
11.
DawsonJHanleyS (2016) The Fading Mirage of the ‘Liberal Consensus’. Journal of Democracy27 (1): 20–34.
12.
FlindersM (2012) Defending Politics: Why Democracy Matters in the 21st Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
13.
GrassoMTFarrallSGrayE, et al. (2017) Thatcher’s Children, Blair’s Babies, Political Socialization and Trickle-Down Value Change: An Age, Period and Cohort Analysis. British Journal of Political Science49: 17–36.
14.
GraylingAC (2017) Democracy and Its Crisis. London: Oneworld Publications.
15.
HaasM (2018) Why Democracies Flounder and Fail: Remedying Mass Society Politics. Berlin: Springer.
16.
HaggardSKaufmanRR (2016) Democratization During the Third Wave. Annual Review of Political Science19: 125–144.
17.
HayC (2007) Why We Hate Politics, vol. 5. Cambridge: Polity Press.
18.
HuntingtonSP (1993) The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, vol. 4. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
19.
KeaneJ (2010) Out of the Ordinary: Bad Luck, Disaster, Democracy. Griffith Review28: 208–225.
20.
KuhnTS (1962) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
21.
LevitskySWayL (2002) The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism. Journal of Democracy13 (2): 51–65.
22.
LevitskySZiblattD (2018) How Democracies Die. New York: Crown.
23.
LipsetSM (1959) Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy. American Political Science Review53 (1): 69–105.
24.
MounkY (2018) The People Vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It. Harvard, MA: Harvard University Press.
25.
MuddeC (2004) The Populist Zeitgeist. Government and Opposition39 (4): 541–563.
26.
MüllerJ-W (2017) What Is Populism?London: Penguin Books.
27.
NorrisP (ed.) (1999) Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
28.
O’DonnellGSchmitterPCWhiteheadL (eds) (1986) Transitions From Authoritarian Rule: Southern Europe, vol. 1. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
29.
PharrSJPutnamRD (eds) (2000) Disaffected Democracies: What’s Troubling the Trilateral Countries?Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
30.
PlattnerMF (2015) Is Democracy in Decline?Journal of Democracy26 (1): 5–10.
31.
PrzeworskiALimongiF (1997) Modernization: Theories and Facts. World Politics49 (2): 155–183.
32.
RuncimanD (2013) The Confidence Trap: A History of Democracy in Crisis From World War I to the Present. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
33.
RuncimanD (2018) How Democracy Ends. New York: Basic Books.
34.
RustowDA (1970) Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model. Comparative Politics2 (3): 337–363.
35.
RyfeDM (2013) Can Journalism Survive? An inside Look at American Newsrooms. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
WeylandKMadridRL (eds) (2019) When Democracy Trumps Populism: European and Latin American Lessons for the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
38.
ZakariaF (1997) The Rise of Illiberal Democracy. Foreign Affairs76: 22–43.
