- Published: 18 July 2016
- ISBN: 9781847924223
- Imprint: Bodley Head
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 208
- RRP: $24.99
Against Elections
The Case for Democracy
- Published: 18 July 2016
- ISBN: 9781847924223
- Imprint: Bodley Head
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 208
- RRP: $24.99
Choosing our rulers by popular vote has failed to deliver true democratic government: that seems to be the verdict of history unfolding before our eyes. Cogently and persuasively, David Van Reybrouck pleads for a return to selection by lot, and outlines a range of well thought out plans for how sortitive democracy might be implemented. With the popular media and political parties fiercely opposed to it, sortitive democracy will not find it easy to win acceptance. Nonetheless, it may well be an idea whose time has come
J. M. Coetzee
This fine iconoclastic work could not be more timely ... demonstrate[s] that far from safeguarding our right to self-determination, elections are actually impeding our democracy
Karen Armstrong
A sovereign remedy for the raging crypto-oligarchy of our turbulent times
Professor Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life
Mounts a convincing case that we have wrongly conflated democracy with elections
Observer
Very persuasive … There are few new big ideas in politics and few answers to the serious challenge faced by democratic politics ... invigorating and advance[s] a promising practical idea … fresh, challenging and uncomplicated
Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
Van Reybrouck wants to revive a system in which government is not just for the people, but really by the people … a persuasive description of a system designed to be soundly based in popular assent
Financial Times
Riveting
Irish Examiner
Excellent . . . Why does our system keep electing people whose incomes, assets, interests and psychology are hugely at variance with ours? Because that is what it is designed to do
George Monbiot, Guardian
Choosing our rulers by popular vote has failed to deliver true democratic government: that seems to be the verdict of history unfolding before our eyes ... [this] may well be an idea whose time has come
J. M. Coetzee
This fine iconoclastic work could not be more timely ... demonstrate[s] that far from safeguarding our right to self-determination, elections are actually impeding our democracy
Karen Armstrong
A sovereign remedy for the raging crypto-oligarchy of our turbulent times
Professor Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life
Mounts a convincing case that we have wrongly conflated democracy with elections
Observer
Very persuasive … There are few new big ideas in politics and few answers to the serious challenge faced by democratic politics ... invigorating and advance[s] a promising practical idea … fresh, challenging and uncomplicated
Daniel Finkelstein, The Times
Van Reybrouck wants to revive a system in which government is not just for the people, but really by the people … a persuasive description of a system designed to be soundly based in popular assent … A President Trump might focus attention on his views
Financial Times