A powerful case for democracy and how it can survive, based on historical analysis of civilization’s best known, long-enduring democracies (ancient Athens & Rome, modern Britain & America). Democracy flourishes only if citizens are willing to adapt and keep relevant the agreement—“the civic bargain”–that they make with one another to govern themselves, free of a boss. It is a lesson modern democracies must confront to survive the continuing challenges of today’s world. Read an excerpt of The Civic Bargain.
“… persuasive … The primal act of healthy democracies is the social bargain, and its product is an idea of citizenship that in itself depends on the coexistence of different kinds of groups.”
“[Manville and Ober] contend that any democracy, if it’s to last and thrive, is in essence a bargain…[they] chart the long and tortured process by which four democracies—those of Athens, Rome, Britain and America—achieved…‘institutionalized disunity’: messy, imperfect but peaceful and secure self-government.”
“Don’t be such a pessimist! Democracy is not dead. Not yet, anyway. But in the United States, it is begging for our recommitment. Josiah Ober, a Stanford professor of political science and of classics, and co-author Brook Manville make that hopeful point in The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives, in what turns out to be a riveting romp—no, actually—through thousands of years of Western political history.”
“Together, [MANVILLE AND OBER] present a beguilingly hopeful picture of democracy’s past and present—conditioned, however, on the willingness of democratic polities to confront two basic challenges, and to promote a specific program for civic education and action.”
“Even with all that seems discouraging in our own time, Americans should take heart that we the people can make a difference and maintain the continuity of our experiment…[Manville and Ober] offer a useful and accessible framework for talking about democracy—in a time when we are all too accustomed to speaking past one another on fundamental matters of civic life.”
“Allow me to offer high praise for The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives, the new book by the independent scholar Brook Manville and Josiah Ober of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. While the entire book is well-written and insightful, its historical overview is a veritable treasure trove for anyone who wants to understand the events leading up to our experiment in self-government, the challenges encountered along the way (human nature being what it is), and the patterns that are most likely to be repeated in the future.”
“Most important, Manville and Ober argue, the great democracies survived because they forged and maintained a “civic bargain,” a political pact about who is a citizen, how decisions are made, and the distribution of responsibilities and entitlements. As a result, these democracies were able to persevere through recurring crises and face down existential threats.”
“… [The authors] take a deep historical perspective, they establish essential conditions for democracy, and they tell us that it is a process that is never finished. Civic bargains must be struck repeatedly at critical junctures to keep democracy alive.”
David Stasavage author of The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today
“In The Civic Bargain, democracy is a living system, ever evolving as the political agents shape and reshape the terms of their bargain with one another. [The authors] present the interweaving histories of democracy in such a way that one has the sense of galloping through a forest with a guide who knows the wildwood the way he knows his own kitchen.”
Jenna Bednar University of Michigan
“Manville and Ober’s new book offers new, fascinating insights about democracy, ancient and modern. They update the metaphor of the social contract to that of a ‘civic bargain,’ whose terms are constantly renegotiated by citizens as a condition of their mutual flourishing. A thought-provoking and captivating read.”
Hélène Landemore author of Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century
“Looking at the past, present, and future of democracy through the lens of a civic bargain is both helpful and hopeful. Manville and Ober combine a lively history lesson with a practical way forward, lighting a democratic path through the darkness.”
