Democracy Erodes from the Top - (Princeton Studies in Political Behavior) by Larry M Bartels

About the Book

"There is a palpable sense of crisis in Western democracies. The rise of right-wing populist parties across Europe, the erosion of constitutional checks and balances in Hungary and Poland, and the 2016 Brexit vote in the UK have all stirred significant alarm regarding the present state of democracy and prospects for its future. And political leaders and would-be leaders have not hesitated to stoke perceptions of crisis in pursuit of their own ends. However, on the whole, Europeans in 2019 were just as satisfied with the working of democracy as they had been 15 years earlier. Trust in national parliaments and politicians remained virtually unchanged. While 'angry opponents of immigration' dominated the headlines, most Europeans' attitudes toward immigration were becoming significantly warmer, not more hostile. In these and other respects, the conventional wisdom about a 'crisis of democracy' in contemporary Europe is strikingly at odds with evidence from public opinion surveys. Drawing from a major survey of European public opinion, Bartels summarizes broad trends from 2002 through 2019, focusing on attitudes commonly taken as symptomatic of a 'crisis of democracy,' including dissatisfaction with the workings of democracy, distrust of political elites, ideological polarization, and antipathy to European integration. He finds, with remarkable consistency across issues, that the European public does not see their democracy as in crisis. Bartels then goes on to show how these findings complicate the sense, for instance, that the surge in support for right-wing populist parties is driven by a 'demand' for such groups from the public. Rather, this and other troubling changes has much more to do with the 'supply' of groups within the political elite. It is these elite groups, Bartels ultimately finds, that have contributed to the erosion of democratic norms and institutions in places like Poland and Hungary-not an increasingly restive European public"

Book Synopsis

Why leaders, not citizens, are the driving force in Europe's crisis of democracy

An apparent explosion of support for right-wing populist parties has triggered widespread fears that liberal democracy is facing its worst crisis since the 1930s. Democracy Erodes from the Top reveals that the real crisis stems not from an increasingly populist public but from political leaders who exploit or mismanage the chronic vulnerabilities of democracy.

In this provocative book, Larry Bartels dismantles the pervasive myth of a populist wave in contemporary European public opinion. While there has always been a substantial reservoir of populist sentiment, Europeans are no less trusting of their politicians and parliaments than they were two decades ago, no less enthusiastic about European integration, and no less satisfied with the workings of democracy. Anti-immigrant sentiment has waned. Electoral support for right-wing populist parties has increased only modestly, reflecting the idiosyncratic successes of populist entrepreneurs, the failures of mainstream parties, and media hype. Europe's most sobering examples of democratic backsliding--in Hungary and Poland--occurred not because voters wanted authoritarianism but because conventional conservative parties, once elected, seized opportunities to entrench themselves in power.

By demonstrating the inadequacy of conventional bottom-up interpretations of Europe's political crisis, Democracy Erodes from the Top turns our understanding of democratic politics upside down.

Review Quotes

"A Foreign Affairs Best of Books"

"Bartels, a leading analyst of electoral democracy and public opinion in the United States, turns here to a central question in European politics: Do right-wing populist parties pose a threat to democracy, moderate politics, and multilateral cooperation? His point in this important book is simple yet powerful."---Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs

"Eye-opening."---Jan-Werner Mueller, Project Syndicate

About the Author

Larry M. Bartels is University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Law and May Werthan Shayne Chair of Public Policy and Social Science at Vanderbilt University. His books include Unequal Democracy: The Political Economy of the New Gilded Age and (with Christopher H. Achen) Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (both Princeton).