Against Democracy

Reviews

"Compelling. . . . This is theory that skips, rather than plods." "Lucidly written in provocative, sometimes brash tones, it is especially useful for the undergraduate classroom." "A brash, well-argued diatribe against the democratic system. There is much to mull over in this brazen stab at the American electoral process. . . . [I]n the current toxic partisan climate, Brennan's polemic is as worth weighing as any other." "Against Democracychallenges a basic precept that most people take for granted: the morality of democracy. . . . Brennan presents a variety of strategies by which the quality of the electorate could be improved, while still keeping it large, and demographically representative. . . . [A] powerful challenge to the conventional wisdom about democracy. . . . [W]orth serious consideration."---Ilya Somin, Washington Post "Important."---Ilya Somin, Washington Post Volokh Conspiracy "The book makes compelling reading for what is typically a dry area of discourse. This is theory that skips, rather than plods."---Molly Sauter, Los Angeles Times "Among the best works in political philosophy in recent memory."---Zachary Woodman, Students for Liberty "Challenging and insightful."---Alexander William Salter, Public Choice "While controversial, Brennan raises important questions that anyone with an interest in politics, philosophy, and economics will have to answer for years to come. This book is a must read."---Thomas Savidge, Journal of Value Inquiry "Against Democracy seems scarily prescient today. Writing well before the twin shocks of the Brexit and the U.S. elections, the Georgetown political scientist makes a powerful case that popular democracy can be dangerous--and, provocatively, that irrational and incompetent voters should be excluded from democratic decision-making. The case for elitism in governance never read so well." "Meticulous [and] crisply written."---Tom Clark, Prospect "Mercilessly well-argued."---Niko Kolodny, Boston Review "One of Zócalo's 10 Favorite Books of 2016" "Brennan has a bright, pugilistic style, and he takes a sportsman's pleasure in upsetting pieties and demolishing weak logic. Voting rights may happen to signify human dignity to us, he writes, but corpse-eating once signified respect for the dead among the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea. To him, our faith in the ennobling power of political debate is no more well grounded than the supposition that college fraternities build character."---Caleb Crain, New Yorker Expand reviews