
The People vs. Democracy
Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.00
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Timothy Andrés Pabon
-
By:
-
Yascha Mounk
About this listen
The world is in turmoil. From India to Turkey and from Poland to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power. As a result, Yascha Mounk shows, democracy itself may now be at risk.
Two core components of liberal democracy - individual rights and the popular will - are increasingly at war with each other. As the role of money in politics soared and important issues were taken out of public contestation, a system of “rights without democracy” took hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create something just as bad: a system of “democracy without rights.”
The consequence, Mounk shows in The People vs. Democracy, is that trust in politics is dwindling. Citizens are falling out of love with their political system. Democracy is wilting away. Drawing on vivid stories and original research, Mounk identifies three key drivers of voters’ discontent: stagnating living standards, fears of multiethnic democracy, and the rise of social media. To reverse the trend, politicians need to enact radical reforms that benefit the many, not the few.
The People vs. Democracy is the first book to go beyond a mere description of the rise of populism. In plain language, it describes both how we got here and where we need to go. For those unwilling to give up on either individual rights or the popular will, Mounk shows, there is little time to waste: this may be our last chance to save democracy.
©2018 Yascha Mounk (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Identity Trap
- A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It is no surprise that many who passionately believe in social justice came to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice.
-
-
May It Mark A Turning Point
- By Larry on 09-28-23
By: Yascha Mounk
-
The Great Experiment
- Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of our sharpest political thinkers, a brilliant big-picture vision of how to bridge the bitter divides within diverse democracies. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal, treating different ethnic or religious groups fairly. And yet achieving that goal is now central to the democratic project.
-
-
Intellectually honest and optimistic
- By Ed W on 05-30-22
By: Yascha Mounk
-
The Canceling of the American Mind
- Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All—but There Is a Solution
- By: Greg Lukianoff, Rikki Schlott
- Narrated by: Rikki Schlott, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cancel culture is a new phenomenon, and The Canceling of the American Mind is the first book to codify it and survey its effects, including hard data and research on what cancel culture is and how it works, along with hundreds of new examples showing the left and right both working to silence their enemies.
-
-
Good book, Important information, poorly read
- By pj on 12-08-23
By: Greg Lukianoff, and others
-
How Democracies Die
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Democracies can die with a coup d'état - or they can die slowly. This happens most deceptively when in piecemeal fashion, with the election of an authoritarian leader, the abuse of governmental power and the complete repression of opposition. All three steps are being taken around the world - not least with the election of Donald Trump - and we must all understand how we can stop them.
-
-
Connecting the Dots
- By Sharon F on 02-06-18
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
The Coming Wave
- AI, Power, and Our Future
- By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar - contributor
- Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.
-
-
Click bait
- By Buyer on 09-11-23
By: Mustafa Suleyman, and others
-
The Delusions of Crowds
- Why People Go Mad in Groups
- By: William J. Bernstein
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by Charles Mackay's 19th-century classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Bernstein engages with mass delusion with the same curiosity and passion, but armed with the latest scientific research that explains the biological, evolutionary, and psychosocial roots of human irrationality.
-
-
The Illusion of Delusions
- By Bill on 02-12-22
-
The Identity Trap
- A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities. It is no surprise that many who passionately believe in social justice came to believe that members of marginalized groups need to take pride in their identity to resist injustice.
-
-
May It Mark A Turning Point
- By Larry on 09-28-23
By: Yascha Mounk
-
The Great Experiment
- Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure
- By: Yascha Mounk
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of our sharpest political thinkers, a brilliant big-picture vision of how to bridge the bitter divides within diverse democracies. Never in history has a democracy succeeded in being both diverse and equal, treating different ethnic or religious groups fairly. And yet achieving that goal is now central to the democratic project.
-
-
Intellectually honest and optimistic
- By Ed W on 05-30-22
By: Yascha Mounk
-
The Canceling of the American Mind
- Cancel Culture Undermines Trust, Destroys Institutions, and Threatens Us All—but There Is a Solution
- By: Greg Lukianoff, Rikki Schlott
- Narrated by: Rikki Schlott, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cancel culture is a new phenomenon, and The Canceling of the American Mind is the first book to codify it and survey its effects, including hard data and research on what cancel culture is and how it works, along with hundreds of new examples showing the left and right both working to silence their enemies.
-
-
Good book, Important information, poorly read
- By pj on 12-08-23
By: Greg Lukianoff, and others
-
How Democracies Die
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Democracies can die with a coup d'état - or they can die slowly. This happens most deceptively when in piecemeal fashion, with the election of an authoritarian leader, the abuse of governmental power and the complete repression of opposition. All three steps are being taken around the world - not least with the election of Donald Trump - and we must all understand how we can stop them.
-
-
Connecting the Dots
- By Sharon F on 02-06-18
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
The Coming Wave
- AI, Power, and Our Future
- By: Mustafa Suleyman, Michael Bhaskar - contributor
- Narrated by: Mustafa Suleyman
- Length: 12 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change. Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.
-
-
Click bait
- By Buyer on 09-11-23
By: Mustafa Suleyman, and others
-
The Delusions of Crowds
- Why People Go Mad in Groups
- By: William J. Bernstein
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 17 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Inspired by Charles Mackay's 19th-century classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Bernstein engages with mass delusion with the same curiosity and passion, but armed with the latest scientific research that explains the biological, evolutionary, and psychosocial roots of human irrationality.
-
-
The Illusion of Delusions
- By Bill on 02-12-22
-
Twilight of Democracy
- The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
- By: Anne Applebaum
- Narrated by: Anne Applebaum
- Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the United States and Britain to continental Europe and beyond, liberal democracy is under siege, while authoritarianism is on the rise. In Twilight of Democracy, Anne Applebaum, an award-winning historian of Soviet atrocities who was one of the first American journalists to raise an alarm about antidemocratic trends in the West, explains the lure of nationalism and autocracy. In this captivating essay, she contends that political systems with radically simple beliefs are inherently appealing, especially when they benefit the loyal to the exclusion of everyone else.
-
-
Modern Dictators & President who wants to be them
- By AJ on 07-23-20
By: Anne Applebaum
-
Power Moves
- Lessons from Davos
- By: Adam Grant
- Narrated by: Adam Grant
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Power is changing. Private corner offices and management by decree are out, as is unquestioned trust in the government and media. These former pillars of traditional power have been replaced by networks of informed citizens who collectively wield more power over their personal lives, employers, and worlds than ever before. So how do you navigate this new landscape and come out on top? Adam Grant, Wharton organizational psychologist, went to the World Economic Forum in Davos, the epicenter of power, and sat down with thought leaders from around the world, to find out.
-
-
Glad I didn't pay for it
- By Garry Schmidt on 01-17-19
By: Adam Grant
-
Evil Geniuses
- The Unmaking of America: A Recent History
- By: Kurt Andersen
- Narrated by: Kurt Andersen
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During the 20th century, America managed to make its economic and social systems both more and more fair and more and more prosperous. A huge, secure, and contented middle class emerged. All boats rose together. But then the New Deal gave way to the Raw Deal. Beginning in the early 1970s, by means of a long war conceived of and executed by a confederacy of big business CEOs, the superrich, and right-wing zealots, the rules and norms that made the American middle class possible were undermined and dismantled.
-
-
History through a far left lens
- By Josh on 09-03-20
By: Kurt Andersen
-
Parfit
- A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality
- By: David Edmonds
- Narrated by: Zeb Soanes
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Derek Parfit (1942–2017) is the most famous philosopher most people have never heard of. Widely regarded as one of the greatest moral thinkers of the past hundred years, Parfit was anything but a public intellectual. Yet his ideas have shaped the way philosophers think about things that affect us all: equality, altruism, what we owe to future generations, and even what it means to be a person. In Parfit, David Edmonds presents the first biography of an intriguing, obsessive, and eccentric genius.
-
-
Loved it
- By Anna Karenina on 07-05-23
By: David Edmonds
-
Eighteen Days in October
- The Yom Kippur War and How It Created the Modern Middle East
- By: Uri Kaufman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
October 2023 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, a conflict that shaped the modern Middle East. The War was a trauma for Israel, a dangerous superpower showdown, and, following the oil embargo, a pivotal reordering of the global economic order. The Jewish State came shockingly close to defeat. After the war, Prime Minister Golda Meir resigned in disgrace, and a 9/11-style commission investigated the "debacle." But, argues Uri Kaufman, from the perspective of a half century, the War can be seen as a pivotal victory for Israel.
-
-
gripping history
- By Alex Troy on 11-12-23
By: Uri Kaufman
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point
- By: Steven Levitsky, Daniel Ziblatt
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here, and not in other wealthy, diversifying nations? And what can we do to save it?
-
-
Tyranny of the Minority
- By orders on 10-07-23
By: Steven Levitsky, and others
-
Proving Ground
- The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World's First Modern Computer
- By: Kathy Kleiman
- Narrated by: Erin Bennett
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After the end of World War II, the race for technological supremacy sped on. Top-secret research into ballistics and computing, begun during the war to aid those on the front lines, continued across the United States as engineers and programmers rushed to complete their confidential assignments. Among them were six pioneering women, tasked with figuring out how to program the world's first general-purpose, programmable, all-electronic computer—better known as the ENIAC. Proving Ground restores these women to their rightful place as technological revolutionaries.
-
-
A Joy to Listen To
- By Sam on 08-07-22
By: Kathy Kleiman
-
Liberalism and Its Discontents
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: Christopher Ragland
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's no secret that liberalism didn't always live up to its own ideals. In America, many people were denied equality before the law. Who counted as full human beings worthy of universal rights was contested for centuries, and only recently has this circle expanded to include women, African Americans, LGBTQ+ people, and others. Conservatives complain that liberalism empties the common life of meaning. As Francis Fukuyama shows in Liberalism and Its Discontents, the principles of liberalism have also, in recent decades, been pushed to new extremes by both the right and the left.
-
-
For those who haven’t given up yet.
- By DMax on 09-29-22
By: Francis Fukuyama
-
How States Think
- The Rationality of Foreign Policy
- By: John J. Mearsheimer, Sebastian Rosato
- Narrated by: Mack Sanderson
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To understand world politics, you need to understand how states think. Are states rational? Much of international relations theory assumes that they are. But many scholars believe that political leaders rarely act rationally. The issue is crucial for both the study and practice of international politics. John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato argue that rational decisions in international politics rest on credible theories about how the world works and emerge from deliberative decision‑making processes.
-
-
2hours of content crammed into 8 hours of listening
- By Al from Virginia on 02-04-24
By: John J. Mearsheimer, and others
-
The Precipice
- Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity
- By: Toby Ord
- Narrated by: Toby Ord
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This urgent and eye-opening book makes the case that protecting humanity's future is the central challenge of our time. If all goes well, human history is just beginning. Our species could survive for billions of years - enough time to end disease, poverty, and injustice, and to flourish in ways unimaginable today. But this vast future is at risk. With the advent of nuclear weapons, humanity entered a new age, where we face existential catastrophes - those from which we could never come back.
-
-
The 80000hours website is better
- By Cristi on 08-06-20
By: Toby Ord
-
A Brief History of Equality
- By: Thomas Piketty
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The world’s leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding, a perfect introduction to the ideas developed in his monumental earlier books.
-
-
Excellent, more accessable, contribution.
- By P. Dean on 09-30-22
By: Thomas Piketty
-
Of Boys and Men
- Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It
- By: Richard V. Reeves
- Narrated by: Richard V. Reeves
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The father of three sons, a journalist, and a Brookings Institution scholar, Richard V. Reeves has spent twenty-five years worrying about boys both at home and work. His new book, Of Boys and Men, tackles the complex and urgent crisis of boyhood and manhood. Reeves looks at the structural challenges that face boys and men and offers fresh and innovative solutions that turn the page on the corrosive narrative that plagues this issue. Of Boys and Men argues that helping the other half of society does not mean giving up on the ideal of gender equality.
-
-
Regretful of My Knee-jerk Reaction To This Title 😔
- By Hazel Winters on 10-13-22
There is a lot to learn in here and, coming from the left, some sacred cows slain.
A Must Read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
good food for thought,
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a must read in the new age of political populism
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you keep up with politics pretty well, skip to the final section where he makes recommendations.
Final part is worth it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Easily worth a credit despite it's flaws.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Mostly Fair
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You don’t like Trump, me neither! But what happens when your precious undemocratic liberalism becomes undemocratic illiberalism? What happens when the left calls everything it wants “rights”, even when what it really entails is trampling other people’s rights?
He doesn’t even make a strong case for why populism is so antithetical to democracy, compared to other political philosophies and movements, you’re just supposed to understand that it’s bad. And he gives hardly any shrift whatsoever to left wing populism. It’s Theodore Adorno saying authoritarianism only exists on the right by defining it to exclude all the way the left is authoritarian too. He uses the word “democracy” when he means “liberalism” as in people voting for what they want is undemocratic, when what he means is what they’re voting for - or would if they even could, which they can’t, thus the populism - is illiberal. This book is a mess and ends with a sappy elegy about ancient Roman. Like settle down, wanker.
Woefully shortsighted
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
People Vs Democracy or democracy Vs people?
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not worth it
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.