John Keane Book Reviews Fudan

What is democracy? Where does it come from and where is it going?To understand the very entangled and complicated subject of “democracy” is not easy, especially for people in countries which lack a democratic tradition. The birth of various forms of democracy is often claimed to be a great novelty, and it as well condemned for bringing chaos into the world. Is democracy something that solely belongs to the Anglo-Saxon world? Or will it turn out to be a “new political possibility” for the universe? Taking its universal appeal into account, Professor John Keane—a public intellectual and a well-known political philosopher from University of Westminster in Britain—questions the nature and the destiny of democracy in his newly published book The Life and Death of Democracy. It is not difficult to see that the author is unsatisfied with the overwhelmingly western yardsticks applied to the study of democracy. Instead, he tries to develop an open interpretation for understanding the spread and ‘indigenization’ of democracy into all corners of the world.

Much attention has already been paid to this brick- thick book. Reviews have appeared in more than 15 journals and newspapers, including the Times, Observer, The Guardian, Financial Times, The First Post etc.; combined they highlight the ripples of interest stirred up by this book. According to David Aaronovitch’s review in the Times of London, this book proved to be “the publishing event of the summer”. The First Post comments that The Life and Death of Democracy “sets out to ‘democratize the history of democracy’". Even though the book has it critics, The life and Death of Democracy keeps expanding its influence since publication in early June 2009.

One particular contribution of this book is that the meaning and origin of the word “democracy” is carefully traced back to Linear B (a language only decoded during our generation) of the Mycenaean civilization. The changes of the alphabet and meaning of democracy are attentively studied in this book, which shows that democracy has never had a fixed or certain definition. It seems as if the magic of “democracy” lies in the instability of its meaning and its constant institutional changes. According to Professor Keane, “democracy is a uniquely time-sensitive political form that cultivates a shared sense of the contingency of power relations”. The three major types of democracy—the ancient Greek assembly democracy, representative democracy (which first developed in the European region over a thousand-year period), and the newly born “monitory” democracy—are traced. Keane points out that the three types of democracy haven’t simply replaced one another; although the history of democracy is defined by these different historical forms, their effects are today still being felt.

After more than 10 years of hard work, Professor Keane successfully helps his readers to extend their understanding of democracy from its origins in the ancient world of Syria-Mesopotamia to the present-day world. The width and depth of the research scope is very impressive: the book is very detailed, multi-programmed in the biogeography of democracy and its indigenization in growing numbers of global contexts. Professor John Keane re-describes the evolutionary ruptures and developments of democracy, depicting the “birth” and “death” of its many different forms through the use of many primary source documents, including many delicate pictures which helpfully give its readers a distinct sense of democracy in throughout its changing history. Accounts of democracy in “neglected countries” during the 19th and 20th-centuries are included and embedded with a broad global perspective. The book develops a retrospect on the current round of globalization, including “neglected countries” including India, Papua New Guinea, Tanzania and the Muslim societies. These often neglected cases are important for understanding the contemporary transformation of democracy, which is leading to what is called “monitory democracy”.

Professor Keane’s preference for “monitory democracy” is clear. This new historical form of democracy depends on the operation of “power-scrutinizing mechanisms”, such as human rights organizations, summits, forums, integrity commissions, participatory budgeting and citizens’ assemblies. The scrutinizing of power by such institutions on behalf of ordinary people is reshaping the land scope of contemporary democracy or so, Professor Keane claims. Since 1945 a new historical era of democracy has been born. Although he is aware of many difficult and disorientating counter-trends, Professor Keane believes that there is a “climate change in favor of democracy”, and an optimistic attitude towards its future runs through the book. However, he points out, this “monitory” democracy has a comparatively loose structure and deep-seated pluralist qualities, in which the new cross-border communication media, rather than nation-state institutions, are now playing an ever more important role. Some “new codes of conduct and new public expectations” within the global interactive media seem to reinforce the balance of power in favor of democratic dynamics.

This remarkable book of 958 pages is full of stylish writing. It is a monument to a “new” history for democracy, one which relies upon both historical retrospectives and current insights and explores the myths of democracy, so contributing to the contemporary debate about its viability, weaknesses and future. In spite of some dis-satisfactions with “democracy”, Professor Keane is a scholar devoted to democracy. He sets out in this book “to raise awareness of the brittle contingency of democracy”, and tries “to remind the reader that every turn of phrase, every custom and every institution of democracy as we know it is time-bound….It is not a way of doing politics that has always been with us, or that will be our companion for the rest of human history. ”

Scanned PDF copy here