Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence

by Jonathan Manthorpe

From the author of the Globe and Mail bestseller, Claws of the Panda, comes a book quite literally for our times. Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence is a thoughtful account of how we can save democracies from the despots and populists who provide easy answers to complicated situations, dumbing political discourse down to sandbox antics. Manthorpe argues that democracy is more resilient than it appears, and is capable of overcoming the attacks from within and without that have sapped its vigour since the end of the Cold War. He begins with a description of the events of 1989, one of the seminal years in modern history. This saw the end of the Cold War, and the apparent conclusive victory of democracy and its civic values. But the view of these changes as a triumph of democracy — as summed up in Francis Fukuyama’s essay "The End of History" — was short-lived. Russia, shorn of its Soviet empire, and the Chinese Communist Party, re-examining its survival after the Tiananmen Square Massacre, began devising ways to counter-attack the West’s triumphalism and these met with considerable success. Internal pressures and contradictions — wealth disparity being chief among them — threaten the survival of many democratic systems. Abandoned industrial workers turn to the repeated platitudes designed to appeal to those left behind without actually offering them the ways and means to catch up. Immigrants, refugees, and the reformist fixations of isolated liberal elites have provided ammunition for would-be despots. Adding to the pressures building on the political norms of our democracies, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought economic and social stand-still for which no country is prepared.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

312 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 22, 2020

About the author

Jonathan Manthorpe is the author of three books on international relations, politics, and history. Over his forty-year career as a journalist, he has been the foreign correspondent in Asia, Africa, and Europe for Southam News, the European Bureau Chief for the Toronto Star, and the national political reporter for The Globe and Mail. For the last few years, he has been based in Victoria, British Columbia.

Reviews

[Ian Beardsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although somewhat similar to other recent books about the current problems in western, North Atlantic democracies, Jonathan Manthorpe's offering provides a unique Canadian perspective, which, as a Canadian, I really appreciated.

Manthorpe's clear, brisk prose was a refreshing surprise, but perhaps it should not have been given that he is an established journalist who wrote for Southam news, the Toronto Star, and the Globe and Mail. I shall definitely look up his other recent book, Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada to learn more about the recent problematic relationship between China and Canada.

Like many of these recent books on the erosion of democracy and its shift towards authoritarian populists, Manthorpe covers similar ground and gives excellent overviews of the situations in the US (Trump) and Europe (Erdogan, Orban, Johnson). He outlines several different causes and symptoms of these shifts, such as the wealth gap, the rise of unaccountable social media players, the resurgence of nationalism, and the overall sense of public bewilderment in a rapidly changing world.

The timing of the book adds the unique perspective from the first months of the Covid-19 crisis, an effect that Manthorpe believes both plays right into the hands of many erstwhile authoritarians and may also be a catalyst for positive change. Indeed, one of my criticisms of these books with titles purportedly about "restoring" or "taking back" democracy is how little time the author spends on outlining their prescription for change. Manthorpe falls into this trap a little himself, spending only the end chapter and his epilogue focused on ideas for hope. One area in which I do agree with him is that the worldwide pandemic has brought us a magnificent opportunity to re-align our priorities to enhance democracy and turn back from the path of electorate apathy and our propensity to vote for populists who will turn back the clock to some non-existent time when everything will be great again like it once was.

With Covid-19, we have found it is those workers with the least pay and perks that actually keep our economy running. CEO's and stock analysts can take a break and work part time from home, but the bakers, store clerks, healthcare workers, and municipal garbage collectors had to work to keep our society from literally collapsing. Many of us have found that we don't need to stay in the same crummy jobs, and that this period of upheaval is a great time to change work to something more fulfilling, especially if the government is providing more equitable salary replacements than typical unemployment insurance. Perhaps we need to re-examine the Universal Basic Income concept, which has numerous successful examples that nervous politicians have quashed in the past. We also have found that, perhaps, our lack of trust in government experts, economists, and scientists is misguided. Maybe, just maybe, some folks with expertise in the field know more about healthcare and running it efficiently than a failed real-estate tycoon flogging red baseball caps and his own brand name.

[Tom Axworthy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonathan Manthorpe is one of Canada’s most distinguished journalists and published last year a very important book-Claws of the Panda- on Chinese foreign policy and its use of a variety of instruments to increase its influence and power.Restoring Democracy in an Age of Populists and Pestilence, in contrast, has a much wider aim and examines critical issues such as why is equality declining and populism expanding , two factors that greatly weaken democracy. While writing the book, Covid-19 struck so Manthorpe uses responses to the pandemic to illustrate his major thesis.Canada - Chinese relations was the focus of his last work but his current study examines Europe and the United States as his primary focus. His relatively short book convincingly demonstrates that elites have ignored the plight of workers while enriching themselves and this has led in turn to raging populism .Others have made this argument at length but the strength of this work is that it synthesizes data from many countries and disciplines and has a clear viewpoint that can be understood by all.

.Manthrope has the gift of synthesis

of synthesis