The People vs. Democracy

Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It

By: Yascha Mounk

Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon

The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result, Yascha Mounk shows, democracy itself may now be at risk.

Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are increasingly at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of “rights without democracy” took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create something just as bad: a system of “democracy without rights.”

The consequence, Mounk shows in The People vs. Democracy, is that trust in politics is dwindling. Citizens are falling out of love with their political system. Democracy is wilting away. Drawing on vivid stories and original research, Mounk identifies three key drivers of voters’ discontent: stagnating living standards, fears of multiethnic democracy, and the rise of social media. To reverse the trend, politicians need to enact radical reforms that benefit the many, not the few.

The People vs. Democracy is the first book to go beyond a mere description of the rise of populism. In plain language, it describes both how we got here and where we need to go. For those unwilling to give up on either individual rights or the popular will, Mounk shows, there is little time to waste: this may be our last chance to save democracy.

©2018 Yascha Mounk (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

A Must Read

A real comprehensive look at what is happening in the United States and around the world as populist governments seem to pop up all over. if you are a fan of Mounk's excellent podcast you will find the narrator a little underwhelming in comparison to Mounk's lively way of speaking.
There is a lot to learn in here and, coming from the left, some sacred cows slain.

good food for thought,

we should not assume that the end liberal democracy means a fall into ruin. ok

a must read in the new age of political populism

excellent read, super relevant. research based. narration was decent, not great. audio quality was not superb. Yascha Mounk is a treasure. his podcast "the good fight" expands on many of the points touched on in The People vs. Democracy. this should be required reading for all lovers of liberty.

Final part is worth it

Great review of populism and “how we got here”

If you keep up with politics pretty well, skip to the final section where he makes recommendations.

Easily worth a credit despite it's flaws.

Great book for perspective on the history of US democracy, less so for the Both-Sides-Ism that fill the later chapters. The ideas of Democracy Without Liberalism and Liberalism without Democracy are a bit mind-bending to understand but entirely worth the brain sweat. While I hate to knock competent work the narrator's perpetual "GEE WHIZ" affect and tone drove me bonkers. This book really would be better related soberly and straightforwardly instead of like it was being read to preschoolers.

Mostly Fair

Great book. I’ve listened to several of Mounk’s books and would recommend all of them. I don’t know that I agree with him on the importance or impact of Donald Trump. He does not provide any examples of the ways in which Trump threatens democracy (at least not outside of being a populist), and tends to put more emphasis on the transgressions of republicans than those of the democrats. He gets it most right when he suggests that both parties will have to have the type of foresight and respect for opponents that the founding father’s had when fighting to create a liberal democratic country

Woefully shortsighted

I’m gonna leave behind all the ordinary gripes about a book written by a leftist who refuses to acknowledge his own political biases and blindnesses, this book aged like milk. It goes about 80% of the way of understanding the rise of populism as having so much to do with “undemocratic liberalism” - preserving rights at the expense of the democratic process - but then celebrates all the ways that the left uses institutions that are impervious to the popular will to achieve its ends. He doesn’t recognize that often “the people” are advocating for their own rights, particularly speech, and then calls the left’s efforts to ban speech it doesn’t like as “democratic” and “liberal” when they’re neither.
You don’t like Trump, me neither! But what happens when your precious undemocratic liberalism becomes undemocratic illiberalism? What happens when the left calls everything it wants “rights”, even when what it really entails is trampling other people’s rights?
He doesn’t even make a strong case for why populism is so antithetical to democracy, compared to other political philosophies and movements, you’re just supposed to understand that it’s bad. And he gives hardly any shrift whatsoever to left wing populism. It’s Theodore Adorno saying authoritarianism only exists on the right by defining it to exclude all the way the left is authoritarian too. He uses the word “democracy” when he means “liberalism” as in people voting for what they want is undemocratic, when what he means is what they’re voting for - or would if they even could, which they can’t, thus the populism - is illiberal. This book is a mess and ends with a sappy elegy about ancient Roman. Like settle down, wanker.

People Vs Democracy or democracy Vs people?

The explanation of this book is valid for the Western world, and US, in term of why our democracy is on the downfall, and is transforming to semi democracy or democracy without rights, or non liberal democracy as terms, one model is cleared that, if you want to rule or conquer people, make them fears (financial, immigration threat, income instability) and blame it on your opponents, enhancing with fake news in social platforms and that will bring about justification to all the changes populist authoritarian desired, even reverse backward to un-democratic ways of life, but on the contrary, for other under development countries, due to the context is quite different, as most of them, crying for democracy and elected government, but the elite or wealthy families 1% or less, take all 99 % of wealth of the country, that would not want democracy to mature, military coup every 4 years, due to the facts that resources will be re-distributed to the unfortunate and the poor that the elected government promised to delivery to them! That is one aspects may need to cover more on this book, to be completed in all scenarios !

Not worth it

I am sorry, but at least three times I wished I could get my money back. A political bashing book without any in depth knowledge. Only the writers personal political beliefs, with less interest than watching 10 hours of MSNBC. Of little academic value. Pass. one star because of conclusion was ok.