Inequality and the Labyrinths of Democracy

A global panorama of liberal democracies from a renowned social theorist.

Classical liberalism regarded universal suffrage as a mortal threat to property. So what explains the advent of liberal democracy, and how stable today is the marriage between representative government and the continued rule of capital?<br><br>Across every continent, people think inequality is a ‘very big problem’. Even the Davos Economic Forum and the OECD say they are worried. And yet capitalist states don’t respond. How has democracy been transformed from a popular demand for social justice into a professional power game?<br><br>To dispel our worsening political malaise, Göran Therborn argues, requires a ‘disruptive democracy’ of radical social movements, such as the climate strike. <i>Inequality and the Labyrinths of Democracy</i> opens with a major new essay mapping the social fractures of the present era. There is also a compact historical survey of worldwide patterns of democratization and a landmark analysis of the OECD economies, ‘The Rule of Capital and the Rise of Democracy’, originally published in <i>New Left Review</i> and collected here in book form for the first time.