The life and death of democracy / John Keane.

"John Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy will inspire and shock its readers. Presenting the first grand history of democracy for well over a century, it poses along the way some tough and timely questions: can we really be sure that democracy had its origins in ancient Greece? How did democratic ideals and institutions come to have the shape they do today? Given all the recent fanfare about democracy promotion, why are many people now gripped by the feeling that a bad moon is rising over all the world's democracies? Do they indeed have a future? Or is perhaps democracy fated to melt away, along with our polar ice caps? ... Stylishly written, this superb book confronts its readers with an entirely fresh and irreverent look at the past, present and future of democracy ... It tracks the changing, hotly disputed meanings of democracy and describes quite a few of the extraordinary characters, many of them long forgotten, who dedicated their lives to building or defending democracy."--Jacket.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 888-929) and index.

Assembly democracy. Athens ; West by east -- Representative democracy. On representative government ; The American century ; Caudillo democracy ; The European graveyard -- Monitory democracy. Under the Banyan tree ; Sea changes ; Memories from the future ; Why democracy ; New democratic rules.