Overview

A political philosopher explores the elusive promises of popular government around the world 'There's no simple way to measure how strong a democracy is, or how weak.' Democracy is a living, breathing thing and Erica Benner has spent a lifetime thinking about the role ordinary citizens play in keeping it alive- from her childhood in post-war Japan, where democracy was imposed on a defeated country, to working in post-communist Poland, with its sudden gaps of wealth and security. This book draws on her experiences and the deep history of self-ruling peoples - going back to ancient Greece, the French revolution and Renaissance Florence - to rethink some of the toughest questions that we face today. What do democratic ideals of equality mean in a world obsessed with competition, wealth, and greatness? How can we hold the powerful to account? Can we find enough common ground to keep sharing democratic power in the future? Challenging well-worn myths of heroic triumph over tyranny, Benner reveals the inescapable vulnerabilities of people power, inviting us to consider why democracy is worth fighting for and the role each of us must play.

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An invigorating reflection on the tensions in liberal democracy. Benner weaves together personal reflections on life in Japan and Eastern Europe with a nuanced account of ancient philosophies that are all too often caricatured. Essential reading for anyone tempted to be complacent about the survival of democracy in the twenty-first century -- Professor Catherine Fletcher This timely work shows how ancient wisdom might save democracies from anarchy and ruin… That she has lived and taught the ideas she writes about gives the book an enjoyable vitality * The Times * Praise for Be Like the Fox -- - * : * A ripping read . . . fascinating, charming, enjoyably unorthodox -- Tim Smith-Laing * the Telegraph * Lively, compulsively readable, fluently written and unshowily erudite -- Terry Eagleton * the Guardian * A gripping portrait of a brilliant political thinker, who understood the dangers of authoritarianism and looked for ways to curb them even though independent speech had become impossible. * The New Yorker *

Praise for Be Like the Fox -- - * : * A ripping read . . . fascinating, charming, enjoyably unorthodox -- Tim Smith-Laing * the Telegraph * Lively, compulsively readable, fluently written and unshowily erudite -- Terry Eagleton * the Guardian * A gripping portrait of a brilliant political thinker, who understood the dangers of authoritarianism and looked for ways to curb them even though independent speech had become impossible. * The New Yorker *

Her book is a whistle-stop tour of theory and practice over 2,500 years, but rather than being an intellectually taxing slog, it is a sparkling page-turner full of wit, original insight and unassuming erudition. -- Katja Hoyer * the Guardian * An invigorating reflection on the tensions in liberal democracy. Benner weaves together personal reflections on life in Japan and Eastern Europe with a nuanced account of ancient philosophies that are all too often caricatured. Essential reading for anyone tempted to be complacent about the survival of democracy in the twenty-first century -- Professor Catherine Fletcher This timely work shows how ancient wisdom might save democracies from anarchy and ruin… That she has lived and taught the ideas she writes about gives the book an enjoyable vitality * The Times * Praise for Be Like the Fox -- - * : * A ripping read . . . fascinating, charming, enjoyably unorthodox -- Tim Smith-Laing * the Telegraph * Lively, compulsively readable, fluently written and unshowily erudite -- Terry Eagleton * the Guardian * A gripping portrait of a brilliant political thinker, who understood the dangers of authoritarianism and looked for ways to curb them even though independent speech had become impossible. * The New Yorker *

Author Information

Erica Benner is a political philosopher who has taught at Oxford University, the London School of Economics and Yale. She is the author of Be Like the Fox, which was selected as one of the Guardian's Best Books of 2017 and shortlisted for the 2018 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography. Erica was born in Japan and currently lives in Berlin.

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