By Justin Kempf
This list is different than most. What sets it apart is not simply that it focuses on books about democracy, but that it looks for ones that will challenge our assumptions and expectations. For those of us who have read extensively about democracy for years, this becomes very difficult. But quite a few scholars do find ways to approach different aspects of democracy in novel ways. They examine concepts in different settings that raise difficult questions that don’t have easy answers.
Over the past few years I have found most of the best books on democracy have flown under the radar. This does not mean books about democracy are not popular or do not sell. Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor, Rachel Maddow’s Prequel, Heather Cox Richardson’s Democracy Awakening and Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s Tyranny of the Minority were all New York Times Best Sellers this past year. Those are all amazing reads that I highly recommend. However, they did not make my top five (although Prequel came very close).
Like always my list is eclectic. I have included books focused on Central America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Two of the books are historical. Three of the books are from first-time authors. But they all touch on questions about democracy in unconventional ways. For those wondering, the list is not ranked. But you’ll find they appeal to different people for different reasons. Still, each one is remarkable in its own way.
Democracy in Darkness
Katlyn Carter’s book covers the late 18th and early 19th century when modern notions about democracy were in their infancy. She recounts how America and France formed their constitutions and then how they continued to evolve during those early years. Central to those debates were questions about secrecy, transparency, and publicity. Politicians debated over not just what information to share with the public, but also how to share it.
Now what makes this book remarkable is how she ties those debates to the very idea of representation itself. Carter makes us realize questions about secrecy and transparency did not exist at the periphery of public deliberations. They were at the heart of public debates in the United States and France. Moreover, those early debates shaped how we think about democracy today.
Carter has authored a book that weaves ideas about democratic theory together with two parallel historical episodes. In so doing it changes how we look at political debates today. After reading her book, I was amazed at how many debates about democracy revolve around questions of secrecy and transparency. It’s a remarkable feat to write about the past in a way that has so much to say about the present.
Democracy or Authoritarianism
The Middle East is not known as a democratic region, however the Arab Spring allowed for some remarkable scholarship. Sebnem Gumuscu provides an important study of Islamist parties in this volume. Islamist parties have puzzled political observers for years, because they largely embrace elections even though they rarely embrace the liberal values that underpin democracy. However, Gumuscu finds Islamism covers a wide range of political parties and movements. Some like Ennahda in Tunisia embrace liberal values and a more expansive notion of democracy. However, some like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt adopt more majoritarian notions of democracy. They believe elections give them a mandate to put their policies into effect without the need for checks on their power.
Gumuscu argues the difference between the two approaches comes down to political leadership. Islamism is a conservative movement, but its political leadership largely determines whether their parties embrace democratic or authoritarian approaches to governance. But what stands out about her book are the implicit parallels to other political parties. The reader naturally draws connections from Islamist parties to other political parties in the United States or Europe. Islamist parties are not alone in having liberal and majoritarian factions within their membership.
For some this insight is not extraordinary. Political science has long debated about the extent political elites shape political debates. But Gumuscu gives these questions greater urgency through the context of Islamist parties. The Muslim Brotherhood brought down the entire political regime because they refused to compromise. Meanwhile, Ennahda made the necessary agreements to allow democracy to survive in Tunisia for ten years. Ultimately, Gumuscu forces us to consider the difference between mere participation in a democracy and actual contributions to democratic governance.
Some People Need Killing
I am not alone when I say Some People Need Killing is one of the best books of the year. Barak Obama named it as one of his favorite books of 2023. Time named it one of the 100 best books of the year. The New Yorker named it one of its 12 best nonfiction books. Everyone loves it, because it was written with a passion and intensity that few can master.
Patricia Evangelista describes herself as a trauma reporter. She worked for Rappler during Rodrigo Duterte’s War on Drugs in The Philippines. She bears witness to the many deaths and atrocities. But the most chilling scene comes from an interview with a vigilante. He says to her, “I’m not a bad guy… It’s just that some people need killing.”
What I learned from Evangelista was how democracy is not simply a form of government but a lived experience. I knew that in my head. But Evangelista made me feel it in my soul. Early in the book she writes, “I was born in the year democracy returned to the Philippines. I am here to report its death.” For Evangelista, democracy is about more than elections. It’s something we experience day to day. Her book is about how that feeling, that experience, was taken away from her country.
Undermining the State from Within
It’s difficult to put into words what Rachel Schwartz has done in this book. On the surface, this is a book about institutions in Central America or more specifically Guatemala and Nicaragua. However, it’s far more ambitious than that. It’s really about how institutional erosion weakens the state. Inevitably, the corruption of institutions weakens the foundations necessary for democracy to thrive.
Schwartz focuses on Central America, because she shows how civil wars serve as the cause or impetus for institutional decay. Her thesis challenges Tilley’s famous dictum, “War made the state and the state made war.” Schwartz shows how civil wars create perverse incentives that destabilize the state over time. Moreover, the impact on those institutions lasts long after the civil war is over.
This is not an easy book to read. Schwartz dives into the weeds in all of her case studies. However, for those who work their way through to the end, the payoff is incredible. Some of the most exciting scholarship today touches on issues of institutional weakness and its relationship to democracy. Schwartz has written a book that will serve as a foundational text for a wide range of future scholars.
Sacred Foundations
Earlier this year, when I invited Anna Grzymala-Busse onto my podcast for an interview, she was surprised. She did not think her book said much about democracy. Sacred Foundations is about how the basic institutions of the state began their evolution during the Middle Ages. Grzymala-Busse shows how the Catholic Church laid the foundations for modern understandings of political representation, the legal system, and taxation. Moreover, they developed proto-institutions that European states emulated.
Grzymala-Busse draws connections between Medieval History and contemporary politics in ways that are both unexpected and imaginative. In some ways her work makes valuable contributions to democratic thought simply through a more thorough explanation for the origin of the modern state. It’s difficult to disentangle ideas about the modern state from democracy. Naturally, Grzymala-Busse focuses quite a bit on how ideas about representation and the law evolved during this period.
This is one of my favorite books, because it’s an academic book that does not read like one. It is written more like popular history than political science, so it’s easier to read than some books on democracy that include regression tables and other forms of statistical analysis. Grzymala-Busse provides a clear argument with details that make the reader want to know more. This is all the more impressive considering the topic is largely unfamiliar to most audiences. It’s a great book for anyone interested in the history behind modern representative democracy.
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