A short, sharp intervention in the crucial debate about the future of democracy, which has been brought to a head by events from Brexit to the Trump phenomenon.We live in strange days in the history of democracy.Every serious politician in the Western world supports democracy. Yet when the EU Referendum and American Elections both delivered the ‘wrong’ result, elites challenged the merit of the people’s will, and some even tried to block it. Preferring unelected institutions, from technocrats to the courts, self-appointed higher minds questioned whether voters are fit to be trusted with their own futures. Ours is the age of “I support democracy, but…”And yet the answer will never be to impose limitations. Popular democracy must offer better choices, rather than removing choice altogether. It’s time to defend democracy and fight for more it, with no ifs, buts or backtracks.
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Mick Hume. Revolting!: How the Establishment are Undermining Democracy and What They’re Afraid Of
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Author’s note
From Brexit to Trump: ‘… but some voters are more equal than others’
Taking the demos out of democracy
A short history of anti-democracy
For Europe – against the EU
Some popular arguments against popular democracy
Spelling out the meaning of democratic freedom
Notes
Also by Mick Hume
About the Author
About the Publisher
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Title Page
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(The one odd note in this expert-bashing survey of public trust was that ‘Academics’ came second behind ‘Friends and immediate family’, with 66 per cent, showing that these experts are still held in relatively high regard. Not high enough, mind you, for the UK’s overwhelmingly pro-Remain academic community to make a difference to the ultimate referendum result.)
What, then, was ‘the truth’ that the Remain campaign had tried and failed to sell to voters? Essentially they sought to displace any discussion of the wider political issues of democracy and sovereignty, and focus the debate on their dire predictions of economic doom if the UK voted to leave the EU, in a bid to bully supposedly simple-minded voters into obedience. The message echoed the fatalistic view that was captured by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s and has effectively been repeated by every UK prime minister since; that ‘There Is No Alternative’ to the economic status quo, so forget about choice, lie back and think of the European Single Market.
