Ruling the Void
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Description
The age of party democracy has passed, argues Peter Mair in Ruling the Void. The major parties have become so disconnected from society that they no longer seem capable of sustaining democracy in its present form.
First published in 2013, Ruling the Void presciently observed that the widening gap between citizens and their political leaders posed a crisis of legitimacy for the governing class, and was fuelling populist mobilisations against it. Europe’s political elites had remodelled themselves as a homogeneous professional class, withdrawing into state institutions that offer relative stability in a world of fickle voters. Meanwhile, non-democratic agencies and practices proliferated – not least among them the European Union itself.
Mair weighs the impact of these changes, and offers an authoritative assessment of the prospects for popular political representation today, not only in the varied democracies of Britain and the EU but throughout the developed world.
With a new Introduction by Chris Bickerton, author of The European Union: A Citizen’s Guide.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781839767890
Publisher: Verso Books
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 17 January 2023
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Verso Books
Audience: Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 14.0mm
Width: 140.0mm
Height: 210.0mm
Weight: 198g
Pages: 208
About the Author
Peter Mair (1951–2011) was one of the leading political scientists of his generation. His books include Party System Change and, with Stefano Bartolini, Identity, Competition and Electoral Availability.
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