In The Joy of Politics I defined politics, after Kenneth Minogue, in contradistinction to despotism, and then challenged my readers to imagine a legitimate political system that was not democratic. In the following excerpt of a commentary for Reuters, John Lloyd riffs along similar lines about politicians, citizens, and civil servants. “Democracy does not simply … More They also serve
In the Joy of Politics I asked whether politics as I had defined it, “legitimate collective decision-making,” after the Australian political scientist Kenneth Minogue, had to be democratic, and whether democracy as a legitimate form of politics, if not the only, had to be liberal. The key issue, as I saw it, and which I … More Illiberalism and legitimacy
I read a lot of material that amounts to an obituary of democratic governance. Democracy is (choose your descriptor) and plagued by a loss of faith. This is one of the principal reasons I have persisted working on the Joy of Politics project Among other things, I thought that it was important to define both … More Democracy is…
From a recent opinion article in the New York Times. Define politics, then. “[T]he small questions that are also the big questions, the ones that help us figure out what connects us together as a town or a state or a country. What do we owe our neighbors? How do we value that which is … More The small questions
According to the 2017 Lowy Institute Poll in Australia, “60% of Australians and 52% of 18–29 year olds agree that ‘democracy is preferable to any other kind of government’ Over a third (36%) of Australians say either that ‘in some circumstances, a non-democratic government can be preferable’ or ‘for someone like me, it doesn’t matter … More The value of democracy
According to the annual Democracy Index, compiled and published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, New Zealand has been ranked fourth worldwide, after three Scandinavian countries (Norway, Iceland and Sweden). The Democracy Index collects data in five categories: electoral process; civil liberties; government function; political participation; and political culture. Accordingly, a country can be said to … More Design digest: democracy in New Zealand
New from Oxford University Press — Reforming Democracy. When, why, and how are democratic institutions reformed? This is the broad question guiding this research, rooted in a context of crises of representative democracy. Core democratic rules can be understood as the formal political rules regulating the direct relationship between elites within the political system, parties, … More Why democratic systems change
The Joy of Politics 