Democracy under Threat

This book addresses some of the most pressing questions of our time: Is democracy threatened by globalisation? Is there a legitimacy crisis in contemporary democracies? Is the welfare state in individual countries under pressure from global trends? What are the implications of high-level migration and rising populism for democracy? Does authoritarianism pose a challenge?

The volume builds on a cross-cultural study of democracy conducted by the Transformation Research Unit (TRU) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa for nearly twenty years. Three of the countries studied - South Africa, Turkey and Poland - receive individual attention as their respective democracies appear to be the most vulnerable at present. Germany, Sweden, Chile, South Korea and Taiwan are assessed in their regional contexts. Further insights are gained by examining the impact on democracy of the global screen culture of Television and the Internet, and by pointing out the lessons democracy should learn from diplomacy to fare better in the future. The book will appeal to both students and practitioners of democracy as well as the general reader.

Preface; Ursula van Beek. - Part I: Theoretical aspects and overview. - Chapter 1: Globalization, Populism and Legitimacy in Contemporary Democracy; Dieter Fuchs and Hans-Dieter Klingemann. - Chapter 2: Temporal Models of Political Development; Laurence Whitehead. - Chapter 3: Democratic Quality and Legitimacy in the TRU Countries; Ursula Hoffmann-Lange and Dirk Berg-Schlosser. - Part II: Critical cases. - Chapter 4: The Return of Nationalist Ethos: The Loss of Liberal Democracy in Poland? ; Ursula van Beek. - Chapter 5: Identity politics: Extreme polarization and loss of capacity to compromise in Turkey; Yilmaz Esmer. - Chapter 6: Political Radicalism: Responding to the Legitimacy Gap in South Africa; Nicola de Jager and Cindy Steenekamp. - Part III: Regional aspects. - Chapter 7: Democratization in Chile: A Long Run and Comparative Perspective; Laurence Whitehead. - Chapter 8: Democratic Resilience in South Korea and Taiwan; Joseph Wong. - Chapter 9: Globalization and Political Legitimacy in Western Europe; Dieter Fuchs and Edeltraud Roller. - Part IV: Global aspects. - Chapter 10: Globalisation and Social Protection: An Economic Perspective; Krige Siebrits. - Chapter 11: Global Electronic Screen Culture: Legitimacy at Stake? ; Pierre du Toit. - Chapter 12: Lessons for Democracy: Diplomacy to the Rescue? ; Christer Jönsson. - Part V: Concluding Chapter. - The Question of Legitimacy in Contemporary Democracies; Ursula van Beek, Dieter Fuchs and Hans-Dieter Klingemann.