Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone

✍ Scribed by Astra Taylor

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Year: 2019
• Tongue: English
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

What is democracy really? What do we mean when we use the term? And can it ever truly exist? Astra Taylor, hailed as a "New Civil Rights Leader" (LA Times), provides surprising answers.

There is no shortage of democracy, at least in name, and yet it is in crisis everywhere we look. From a cabal of thieving plutocrats in the White House to campaign finance and gerrymandering, it is clear that democracy—specifically the principle of government by and for the people—is not living up to its promise.

In Democracy Might Not Exist Astra Taylor shows that real democracy—fully inclusive and completely egalitarian—has in fact never existed. In a tone that is both philosophical and anecdotal, weaving together history, theory, the stories of individuals, and interviews with such leading thinkers as Cornel West, Danielle Allen, and Slavoj Zizek, Taylor invites us to reexamine the term. Is democracy a means or an...