Democracy in Crisis? : The Putney Debates 2023

This volume explores the state of representative democracy on the global stage.It does this against the backdrop of crises such as the USA Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, recent refusals to accept election results in various countries, and attempts to restrict the voting franchise, as well as longer-term trends such as the rise of populism and declining trust in political elites.The first substantive chapter examines representative democracy in theory, history and practice today.Taking the representative model as their point of departure, the subsequent chapters explore a range of themes in relation to this model. The contributions include timely reappraisals of democracy in countries, such as the UK and USA, with old, well-established democratic structures as well as analyses of the state of democracy in regions, such as Africa, Asia and South America, where democracy has had a more chequered history.Across all of its chapters, the book invites readers to rethink fundamental questi