The election of Donald Trump in the US and the rise of populism across the western world has led to a torrent of books questioning the future of democracy. They include How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt; The People Vs Democracy, by Yascha Mounk; On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder; Fascism: A Warning, by Madeleine Albright; and The Retreat of Western Liberalism, by the Financial Times’s Edward Luce.
David Runciman, professor of politics at Cambridge university, is late to this rather depressing feast and I picked up his book fearing that he might have nothing new to say. He proved me wrong. The book is full of intriguing new lines of thought.
Unlike many of his competitors in the democracy demolition derby, Runciman does not start from the premise that the current US president is the central threat. He takes the Trump phenomenon seriously, but also believes that “American democracy will survive the presidency of Donald Trump. Barring utter catastrophe, there will be no coup and?.?.?.?no collapse in the rule of law.”