Revolting!: How the Establishment are Undermining Democracy and What They’re Afraid Of

Revolting!: How the Establishment are Undermining Democracy and What They’re Afraid Of
Mick Hume

A short, sharp intervention in the crucial debate about the future of democracy, which has been brought to a head by events from Brexit to the Trump phenomenon.We live in strange days in the history of democracy.Every serious politician in the Western world supports democracy. Yet when the EU Referendum and American Elections both delivered the ‘wrong’ result, elites challenged the merit of the people’s will, and some even tried to block it. Preferring unelected institutions, from technocrats to the courts, self-appointed higher minds questioned whether voters are fit to be trusted with their own futures. Ours is the age of “I support democracy, but…”And yet the answer will never be to impose limitations. Popular democracy must offer better choices, rather than removing choice altogether. It’s time to defend democracy and fight for more it, with no ifs, buts or backtracks.

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Copyright (#u6efb7a13-393f-5792-a97e-2f0ad826d862)

William Collins

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This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2017

Copyright © Mick Hume 2017

Mick Hume asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9780008220822

Ebook Edition © February 2017 ISBN: 9780008220839

Version: 2017-01-31

Dedication (#u6efb7a13-393f-5792-a97e-2f0ad826d862)

For Ginny, my wife – one in 17.4 million

Contents

Cover (#u275da01e-f7f5-5b3b-a53f-b7d03d223eb8)

Title Page (#udedf0598-2dce-5d90-846d-780157c73df0)

Copyright (#u5b30bc4b-8f68-52e6-8f73-2bc681916052)

Dedication (#ubbb15c5f-0377-515c-b05b-821444aebf24)

Author’s note (#u301bd714-7f6b-55a1-bb1e-8cdd10d767d3)

1 From Brexit to Trump: ‘… but some voters are more equal than others’ (#u8453dc3c-fd11-55a2-b017-b3588ca6285e)

2 Taking the demos out of democracy (#litres_trial_promo)

3 A short history of anti-democracy (#litres_trial_promo)

4 For Europe – against the EU (#litres_trial_promo)

5 Some popular arguments against popular democracy (#litres_trial_promo)

Epilogue: Spelling out the meaning of democratic freedom (#litres_trial_promo)

Notes (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Mick Hume (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Author’s note (#u6efb7a13-393f-5792-a97e-2f0ad826d862)

This short book was conceived and written after the 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU, and the US presidential election. But the idea of writing a polemical defence of popular democracy against its modern enemies did not occur to me overnight.

For some time, I had been aware of the widening gap between the rhetorical support for democracy in Western societies, and the attempts to restrict it in practice. And I had become particularly concerned by the Western left’s effective abandonment of the defence of democratic freedoms.

Similar concerns motivated the writing of my previous book, Trigger Warning: Is the Fear of Being Offensive Killing Free Speech?, to which Revolting! can be seen as a companion, if not a sequel.

In contrast to today’s state-centred leftism, the British left-wing tradition with which some of us identify has always taken the fight for democracy and free speech seriously: from the Levellers to the radical wing of the Suffragettes.

Those who believe in progress have fought for more democracy and freedom, not just as a good idea or an end in itself, but also as the means to help change the world. The left’s abandonment of those historic causes marks the end of that era.

The need now is to bring the politics of democracy to life and start a new public debate about the sort of society we want. This book is intended as a contribution, and a call to arms.

Revolting!’s argument for more democracy has been developed through my years as a campaigning journalist in both the mainstream and alternative press, not least as the editor of Living Marxism magazine from 1988 (relaunched in the 1990s as the taboo-busting LM until it was forced to close after being sued under England’s atrocious libel laws in 2000), and then as the launch editor of Spiked (spiked-online.com), of which I am now editor-at-large.

Like anything to do with mass democracy, however, this book is no solo effort. It would not have been possible without the contributions of others. I want to extend my thanks and admiration to my hard-working colleagues at Spiked – Tom Slater, Tim Black, Viv Regan and Ella Whelan, led by the inimitable editor Brendan O’Neill. They are true pioneers breaking new ground in the struggles over democracy and free speech.

Although this book is critical of the way that experts are now empowered to give orders rather than advice, it is itself reliant on the invaluable expertise of other writers and historians, past and present. I am indebted to the work of Bruno Waterfield and James Heartfield on the European Union.

Thanks are also due to Joseph Zigmond, my editor at William Collins, for helping to make the idea behind Revolting! into a reality. Finally, I would like to offer sincere thanks to my old friend and collaborator Frank Furedi, for the inspiration and advice to focus on the arguments that matter.

When it comes to taking responsibility for the text, warts and all, I remain of course in a minority of one.

Mick Hume, London, February 2017

1

From Brexit to Trump: ‘… but some voters are more equal than others’ (#u6efb7a13-393f-5792-a97e-2f0ad826d862)