"Can Democracy Be Revived? Populism Considered from History"

2024/07/23

In recent years, the decline of democracy has been repeatedly discussed. For example, according to a report last year by the US human rights organization Freedom House, democracy has been "deteriorating" for 17 consecutive years. Additionally, many related books have been published. Representative examples include excellent studies available in Japan, such as "How Democracies Die: The Road to Dictatorship Invited by Polarized Politics" by Harvard University professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (translated by Daido Hamano, Shinchosha, 2018) and "How Democracy Ends: Coups, Catastrophes, and Technology" by Cambridge University professor David Runciman (translated by Shigeki Wakabayashi, Hakusuisha, 2020).

This book discusses the decline of democracy in a way that differs from several representative approaches by such political scientists. This book is the result of discussions at the International Historical Comparative Study Group on Populism held at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research Centers and Institutes from February 2020 to February 2023. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the issues of the decline of democracy and the expansion of authoritarianism have become even more prominent and pressing. While the problem of the decline of democracy has worsened, there have been few signs of improvement.

In Part 1 of this book, we focused on discussing how the decline and collapse of democracy were observed in European countries during the interwar period, particularly in the 1930s, by examining cases from several countries. Then, in each chapter of Part 2, we examine how democracy was nurtured, faced crises, and eventually collapsed in interwar Japan. Furthermore, in Part 3, based on those historical lessons, we discuss the modern crisis of democracy from multiple perspectives.

Rather than viewing the crises we face today as absolute, inevitable, or unique, it is an important intellectual endeavor to recognize that crises have appeared in various forms in the past and have been overcome. I hope that this book, which was examined by a group of mid-career and young experts in political history and political science, will be widely read and serve as an opportunity to more deeply understand the essence of the crises we must overcome.

"Can Democracy Be Revived? Populism Considered from History"

Yuichi Hosoya (Co-editor)

Keio University Press

298 pages, 2,200 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of this publication.