A Break From Democracy Articles With Some Democratic Music

 

While I slowly slog through Edward Elgar Publishing's new and massive Research Handbook on Populism, which will be the subject of my next review and also work on a few revisions to a paper on epistemic democracy I recently completed, I thought a few of my readers here (two or three maybe?) might like to hear some new freely improvised music from--as anyone can easily tell from the picture above--Framed Ophelia (though obviously not the pre-Raphaelite version). You can listen free at Bandcamp. 

If, as I suspect, a couple of quick, easy-to-swallow excerpts is way more than enough for most democracy researchers, I recommend tasting "Robot Beat Poets" and "Swarm Intelligence"--maybe topped off with "A Brief Dilemma."  (Yoshi can be soooo lyrical.) 

FWIW, I insist that, while these recordings represent neither left- nor right-wing populism, they do kind of symbolize authentic, radical democracy--even if of a kind that is sometimes a bit undistilled for my liking. That's life, I guess.

Here's a bit more, for those with an interest in the solemnity of Graduation Days:

Back soon with the regular (more boring? less annoying?) stuff. 

Cheers.

Are There Any Important New Books on Democracy That are Fun to Read?

  

After writing what seems like a hundred reviews of contemporary books on democratic theory, my own (likely idiosyncratic) view about the current lit is that the best stuff written this century so far is by Roslyn Fuller. She has three recent books on the subject (and I understand is about to start a fourth). I have just completed a review of one of them: Defence of Democracy. I here provide the last three sentences as a bit of a teaser/trailer. 

This is a terrific work that would be important for its informative discussion of Athenian democracy alone. It’s not only fun to read and convincing, but the issues it addresses are of the highest importance. In fact, it’s my view that Fuller is the heir apparent to Robert Dahl, and that she is currently producing the most valuable and readable contributions to political theory that anyone is likely to find anywhere. Highly recommended.

 

[NB: The picture above is of the book's author!]