From Democracy to Freedom

by CrimethInc.

From Democracy to Freedom grew out of years of dialogue between participants in social movements around the world. Exploring how recent uprisings have been catalyzed and limited by democratic discourse, From Democracy to Freedom explores the difference between government and self-determination, proposing new ways to understand what we're doing when we make decisions together.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Anarchism, Philosophy, Political Science, Sociology

216 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

From the official website:
Crimethought is not any ideology or value system or lifestyle, but rather a way of challenging all ideologies and value systems and lifestyles—and, for the advanced agent, a way of making all ideologies, value systems, and lifestyles challenging.

Reviews

[xDEAD ENDx · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone's favorite punks have grown up.

Accessible theory that lays waste to the democratic sham. At times it's too soft on the liberal-anarchists, but whatever, that's expected.

The case studies are great insight into what has happened around the world in the past several years. Some of them rely on "truth" and numbers in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable, but I don't know that I have a solution to this (i.e. there were thousands at the assembly, and a small group of 50 were able to shut down the proposal -- how accurate are these numbers, and like, this creates such a tit for tat that I have to be skeptical).

Good book all around; worth the (quick) read.

[tout · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad to see CrimethInc. putting out books that are more topical and slightly beyond the same kind of introduction to anarchy texts they are so known for. This one in particular is a kind of afterthought to the Arab spring, the movement of the squares, occupy and their various reverberations, probing further in depth into one of the primary self limiting factors of those movements often caged within the imaginary and structure of democracy. The writing and discourse is not exactly to my taste, though I'm happy that they have offered a gentle introduction to another way of thinking about revolution (or why and how to relate to each other now) outside and against democracy in all forms.

[Meriko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Banger

[Rhys · Rating 4 out of 5]

An authentic and critical analysis of protest/dissent movements using examples and experiences over the past decade. There was a healthy distrust of 'direct democracy' with an eye to self-determination as important mechanisms to maintain the enthusiasm required for social revolution. Unfortunately, the case studies were analyses of failure - though it should be said that the authors do a very good job being self-critical without wallowing in pessimism - they were wide open to their experiences.

"The experience in the plaza taught us in practice what we had already argued in theory: that direct democracy recreates representative democracy; that it is not the features that can be reformed (campaign finance, term limits, popular referendums), but the most central ideals of democracy that are inherently authoritarian. The beautiful thing about the encampment in the plaza was that it had multiple centers for taking initiative and creating. The central assembly functioned to suppress this; had it succeeded, the occupation would have died much sooner. It did not succeed, thanks in part to anarchist intervention" (p.101).

[Black Spring · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is more proof positive that CrimethInc. continues to excel at writing texts which serve as accessible introductory courses about timely and/or hot button issues for beginners and which also provide something a bit more than just a refresher for long-time activists, radicals, and anarchists. In a reasonably brief and cogent book (given the sprawling history of its topic) the authors provide an overview of the origins and development of the governmental forms and ways of life known to us as democratic, before launching into several chapters about specific recent insurrectionary struggles from around the world. Along the way, although occasionally suffering from simplistic language and limited discussion of nuanced topics, CrimethInc. ends up offering a critique which is surprisingly and– at this late hour when so much commentary on the subject is so hackneyed and uninspired–delightfully total. This is nothing less than a clever digest of insights into questions regarding: the birth and nature of democracy, democracy vs. autonomy, the intimate relationship between democracy and patriarchy, race, slavery, anti-black sentiment, and the prospects and inherent limits of technology. The treatments of race and technology alone are worth the cost of admission, as this hot little number culminates in a fairly incisive attack on the manifold forms of resignation, obscurantism, and complicity, and easily surpasses other recent and less critical attempts at the primer (like "Inhabit" which sees fit to exclude any critique of technology, race, or fascism, and includes some of the most trifling, acritical bullshit penned by anarchists of my generation). Have you found yourself wondering at how and why anarchists, socialists, liberals, conservatives, and fascists can somehow all find themselves acting and arguing under the same banner of "democracy," or suspected that the shared political culture which renders this possible is a veritable fucking shitshow of lowest common denomination and needs to be supplanted with quickness? Want to read something within a week, pass it to your sort of problematic Uncle Bill and have him actually understand it? Then enter here, dear reader, and grasp chapters with titles like "The Democracy of the Reaction: What the Revolutions of 1848 Tell Us About the Limits of 2011" and watch the letters on the page start to slow dance, then simmer, boil, and elegantly explode into a confrontation with the dark heart of western civilization itself. It's lit!

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book contains theory about democracy, specifically about why it's not working to improve people's freedom and participation. As someone who's always defended direct democracy, this book made me seriously question my standpoints. The text led to discussions with another reader of the book that went on for hours and hours -which is a good thing. The included images and comics, although often worth a good laugh, sometimes deflated the maturity of the theory a little.

The second half of the book consists of case studies, which I enjoyed more than expected. I especially liked chapters like the ones about Spain, Slovenia and Bosnia, which gave detailed descriptions, relevant history and an analysis of what went wrong and what could have worked instead. The pictures of protests etc. added to the stories. A chapter I liked less was the one about Greece, which sadly felt more like a long rant without much information or context.

[Tom Crehore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of this book is brilliant. Some of the conclusions drawn from false premises are laughable. However, it does challenge the (almost) universal notions of democracy and why we think it desirable. And because of the extremely useful passages of this book, I will never think about democracy in the same way again.
The book starts with the exposition of ideas (40-45%), with the majority of the book being case studies on the collaborations, conflicts, and compromises made by advocates of democracy and anarchists. All of those are interesting and useful interviews and discussions. If you are looking for conventional wisdom to be shaken up and looked at from a different perspective, read this book. You won't regret it.

[LunaSanguine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book is split into two parts.
The first half is criticism of democracy from an anarchist point of view. Having read a few of those it seems to me they're always pretty much the same so it wasn't really interesting to me anymore.
The second half however was pretty interesting: It offered real perspectives from anarchists who had particapted in larger social movements working with plenary sessions and concepts of gras-roots democracy + their opinions on what can be learned from those experiences. That was sure interesting for an activism newbie like me.

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Si votar sirviera para algo, lo habrían prohibido

[Brendan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Re-read, 04/2023: Five years later, this is still a sharp analysis of the perils of equating democracy with freedom. In a world that seems to get progressively less free by the day, information like this is important.

As expected from Crimethinc., this is a cogent and simply presented analysis of democracy and freedom from an anarchist perspective. I found benefit in both the analytical sections and the field reports.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book excellently and simply explains the argument against any form of democracy. I really appreciate the well defined chapters and footnotes, as well as the overall layout of the book. They give a lot of real life examples of democracy going wrong, and I think it is a great book to have in your anarchist repertoire.

[ػᶈᶏϾӗ]

I'm guessing this is the zine format?