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Book Review: How Democracy Ends by David Runciman (New York Journal of
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Article · July 2018

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new york journal of books

How Democracy Ends

Author(s):
David Runciman
Release Date:
July 2, 2018
Publisher/Imprint:
Basic Books
Pages:
272
Buy on Amazon

Reviewed by:
Deepak Tripathi

Since the days of Athenian democracy two and a half millennia ago, the idea of “rule of
the people” has acquired many versions. Under the extraordinary system of governance
in the fifth to fourth century BCE, all male citizens of Athens had equal political rights,
took part in direct democracy, lived by the decisions they themselves made, and by
random selection were chosen to serve in the institutions that governed them.

Today, direct democracy is rare, replaced in most countries by a version of democracy

whereby citizens, male and female, elect their representatives who govern on their
behalf.

The collapse of Soviet communism heralded a new democratic spring in countries

which had been under Moscow’s domination. But whereas democracy blossomed in
Europe as the 20th century came to an end, the Arab Spring in the new century proved
short-lived before it was crushed.

These examples inform us about the power as well as fragility of democracy.

Recent events in the United States, a number of European countries and India have
raised serious doubts about the health of democracy even in the most advanced nations.

Potentially illegal data collection, targeting specific groups to influence them to vote in a
certain way, and widespread suspicions of Russian interference in the American and
European elections have poisoned the environment. Trust in public institutions and
their ability to ensure free and fair elections has been a major casualty. Warnings are
rife that democracy as a system of governance is under threat. Are we approaching the
end of democracy? It is a question increasingly being asked.

David Runciman, professor of politics at Cambridge University, raises the same question
in his new book How Democracy Ends (Basic Books, 2018). Since his PhD thesis, which
came out as Pluralism and the Personality of the State (CUP, 1997), Runciman has
published several books about plurality in political systems and the crisis of trust in
democracies.

The publication of How Democracy Ends coincides with a particularly turbulent period
for Western democracies. Runciman describes it as democracy’s midlife crisis. Various
democratic societies are at different points in their lives. But there is compelling
evidence that the future is going to be different.

The book, saturated with information, is a study of the decline of democracy after its
most successful century. Runciman explores the factors that make the current crisis
unlike those democracy has faced when it was younger.

First, he maintains that “political violence is not what it was for earlier generations,
either in scale or character.” Western societies are “fundamentally peaceful societies,
which means that our most destructive impulses manifest themselves in other ways.”
Second is the change in the threat of catastrophe. Whereas the prospect of disaster once
tended to produce a “galvanizing effect” on people to take action, now the effect is
“stultifying”—a condition in which it all seems futile.
Third, the information technology revolution has made us dependent on
communication and information-sharing which we cannot control or understand.
With these suppositions, Runciman has organized his work around three themes
endangering democracy: coup, catastrophe, and technological takeover. His insights
into challenges that confront democracies today are compelling. His suggestion that the
threat to them is not from outside, but from subversion and power grab within is
intriguing.

That populism breeds in democratic societies when conditions of economic distress,

technological change and growing inequality exist is evident, though the absence of war
is among those conditions is questionable. Attrition and low-level conflict do afflict
democracies. And democracies have shown a propensity to go and fight wars abroad.

Catastrophe can strike in one of many forms. Runciman writes that “modern civilization
could destroy itself by weapons of mass destruction, by poisoning itself or it could allow
itself to be infected by evil.” Climate change, artificial intelligence or technological
advances resulting in extensive calamity if technology falls under the control of ruthless
individuals—all threaten us.

That the power of computers by pressing a button could bring the end of democracy no
longer belongs to science fiction. Robots could wreak havoc in our societies if they fell
into the wrong hands. Humans might not be able to stop robots once such machines
went on a destructive spree.

As Runciman puts it in the final section of his book, the appeal of modern democracy is
that it offers dignity to its inhabitants with an expectation that their views will be taken
seriously by politicians. And it delivers long-term benefits. But with rapid changes
taking place in societies at different stages of development, what alternatives are there
to twentieth century democratic systems?

The author presents three models in the end. First, Chinese-type pragmatic
authoritarianism which offers personal benefits underwritten by the state, but at the
cost of opportunities of self-expression. Second, epistocracy, the rule of the knowers,
arguing that the right to take part in political decision-making depends on whether you
know what you are doing. The model is directly opposed to democracy in which each
citizen has equal rights.

Third, societies offering liberation by technology—societies in which some people,

those who can afford, will try to buck death without any help from the state.
How Democracy Ends is a thorough study of democracy and its trials and tribulations on
approaching midlife. Inhabitants have enjoyed its fruits: freedom, prosperity, and
longevity. Democracy offers us opportunities to do exciting things.

But it also brings stability and boredom and as time passes, fear that it may not
continue. If it is not going to continue, what will our future be? Runciman, in this book,
has made sweeping observations about democracy in the past and present. He has
raised intriguing questions about the future in imaginative ways. The book is highly
recommended for general readers, undergraduates and professionals.
 Deepak Tripathi is a British historian with specific focus on the Middle East and South Asia, the Cold War
and America in the world and the United Kingdom. In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical
Society and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. His writing has appeared in
publications such as Al Jazeera, History News Network, CounterPunch, AlterNet, and others.

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