Colin Crouch - Post-Democracy After the Crises

1 Dedication Dedication To the memory of Alessandro Pizzorno (01/01/1924–04/04/2019), who, in 1973, enabled me to embark on a career of research on comparative European industrial relations; who, in 1995, welcomed me to Florence and the European University Institute; who, in 2002, interested Giuseppe Laterza in my Fabian Society pamphlet, Coping with Post-Democracy, which led to my writing, in 2003, Post-Democracy.

2 Title page Post-Democracy After the Crises Colin Crouch polity

3 Copyright page

4 Acknowledgements

5 Abbreviations

6 Preface Post scriptum

7 1 What Is Post-Democracy? Democratic Moments The Weakening of Democracy Liberal Democracy and Other Forms

8 2 Inequality and Corruption Inequality and Democracy From lobbying to clandestine opinion manipulation Redefining Corruption Imperfect competition and corporate neoliberalism New public management The outsourcing of public services Conclusion

9 3 The 2008 Financial Crisis How Financial Markets Were Deregulated What Does 2008 Tell Us About Post-Democracy? Would stronger democracy have performed better? Conclusion

10 4 The European Debt Crisis The Handling of the Eurozone Crisis and Post-Democracy European Post-Democracy

11 5 Politicized Pessimistic Nostalgia: A Cure Worse than the Disease Understanding Pessimistic Nostalgia The US Central and Eastern Europe Western Europe The UK and Brexit Conclusion: The Non-Democratic Supports of Democracy

12 6 The Fate of Twentieth-Century Political Identities The Decline of Class and Religion Cultural and Economic Politics

13 7 Beyond Post-Democracy? The Dependence of Democracy on Non-Democratic Institutions Reviving Democratic Alternatives Changing Formal Politics The revival of environmentalism The potentiality of gender politics

14 References

15 Index

16 End User License Agreement

1 Cover

2 Contents

3 1 What Is Post-Democracy?

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To the memory of Alessandro Pizzorno (01/01/1924–04/04/2019), who, in 1973, enabled me to embark on a career of research on comparative European industrial relations; who, in 1995, welcomed me to Florence and the European University Institute; who, in 2002, interested Giuseppe Laterza in my Fabian Society pamphlet, Coping with Post-Democracy, which led to my writing, in 2003, Post-Democracy.

Colin Crouch

polity

Copyright © Colin Crouch 2020

The right of Colin Crouch to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2020 by Polity Press

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All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4156-0

ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-4157-7 (pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Crouch, Colin, 1944- author.

Title: Post-democracy after the crises / Colin Crouch.

Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Crouch’s provocative argument in Post-Democracy has in many ways been vindicated by recent events, but these have also highlighted some weaknesses of the original thesis and shown that the situation today is even worse”-- Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019033304 (print) | LCCN 2019033305 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509541560 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509541577 (paperback) | ISBN 9781509541584 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Democracy--Philosophy. | World politics--21st century.

Classification: LCC JC423 .C7673 2020 (print) | LCC JC423 (ebook) | DDC 321.8--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033304

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019033305

Typeset in 11 on 13pt Sabon

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Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Limited

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