Urgent. Powerful. Engaging.
A compelling examination of the dangers of democracy
"A brilliant work. Tersely written
and bracing in argument... it also frames one of today's great global
debates with nuance and wit." - Parag Khanna, best-selling
author Second World
"In the end, it has to do with our conception of man. It is
not just what people want that matters, it is what serves human dignity."
- Robert Cooper, The Sunday Times
"This kind of democracy can kill, as his title suggests, encouraging
conflict rather than resolving it. It is an engaging record of a dogged
and decent journalist at work." - Martin Woollacott,
The Guardian
"The breadth of his experience... gives him a unique vantage-point
from which to compare different systems: both as seen by the rulers,
and - more important perhaps - by the ruled." Mary
Dejevsky, The Independent
"Democracy is difficult, messy, uneven and contradictory. But
it’s also about hope, and the liberation of the human spirit to write,
speak and organise economic and social relations as intelligently
as possible." - Denis MacShane, MP, Financial Times
"What is surprising - uncomfortably so - is this: Evidence shows
that attempts to democratize the developed world have made internal
tensions much worse..." - Gerard DeGroot The Christian
Science Monitor
"Offers an impressive collection of evidence, including interviews with people at the bottom of the capitalist pile across five continents... This is an important book by a good journalist" - Paul Simon, Morning Star
"His descriptions of the chocolate trade in the Ivory Coast and the mess in Iraq are devastating, emotionally as well as intellectually." - Peter Gordon, The Asian Review of Books
"It is a sign of the times that a British reporter, Humphrey Hawksley, has written a book with the title: "Democracy Kills: What's So Good About the Vote?" - The Economist
BARACK OBAMA on DEMOCRACY, September 23rd
2009:
"Each country will pursue a path rooted in the culture of its
people, and - in the past - America has too often been selective in
its promotion of democracy."
Failed states, not super-power rivalry, are now defining our foreign
policy. Why then, do we know so little about how to fix them?
With attempts to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan leading
to war and with poverty on the increase in Africa, BBC World Affairs
Correspondent Humphrey Hawksley asks: what is the best way to move
from dictatorship to democracy without violence?
The result is a book of vivid reportage in which we meet the Iraqi
wedding photographer willing to exchange his vote for water, electricity
and security; the Patagonian sheep farmer who saw economic collapse
looming long before the bankers; the African cocoa farmer who is earning
a quarter of what he was thirty years ago; the politician in a shabby
election office who gives Hawksley a step-by-step answer to his overarching
question - but who is willing to listen?