A powerful new account of how populist movements are sabotaging political institutions from within and undermining democracies across the globe.\nThe 2016 election of Donald Trump focused people's minds on populism, and most of the attention paid to the subject since has been on the threat it poses to wealthy democracies. In Democracy Unmoored, Samuel Issacharoff takes a far wider-angle view of the phenomenon, covering countries from across the globe: Brazil, Poland, Argentina, Turkey, India, Hungary, Venezuela, and more. Just as importantly, he focuses on populism's attack on the institutions of governance. Democracy requires two critical features: first, a commitment to repeat play such that political actors understand that what goes around comes around; and, second, institutional constraints so that the majority can prevail, albeit not by too much. Democracies must avoid the doomsday scenario in which the contending parties see the next election as the final choice between salvation and perdition. Issacharoff shows how populist governance undermines each of these two critical underpinnings of stable democracy, first by 
compressing the time horizon to the immediate, and second by eroding institutional constraints on strongman rule. At the same time, Issacharoff highlights the fact that ascendent populists were pushing in an open door as they found democracies in states of disrepair in the post-2008 world. Electorates around the world had come to see institutional democratic party systems as cabals of elites working against "the people," which anti-institutionalist populists took advantage of in country after country. Global in coverage and featuring a powerful explanation of the true threat populism represents to democracy, this book will be essential reading for anyone who cares about the survival of democratic institutions.

Democracy Unmoored: Populism and the Corruption of Popular Sovereignty

Issacharoff, Samuel

Legal Theory & Systems

Oxford University Press

Fragile Democracies: Contested Power in the Era of Constitutional Courts (Cambridge Studies in Election Law and Democracy)

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the democratic ascendency of the post-Soviet era is under severe challenge. While fragile democracies in Eastern Europe, Africa, and East Asia face renewed threats, the world has witnessed the failed democratic promises of the Arab Spring. What lessons can be drawn from these struggles? What conditions or institutions are needed to prevent the collapse of democracy? This book argues that the most significant antidote to authoritarianism is the presence of strong constitutional courts. Distinct in the third wave of democratization, these courts serve as a bulwark against vulnerability to external threats as well as internal consolidation of power. Particular attention is given to societies riven by deep divisions of race, religion, or national background, for which the courts have become pivotal actors in allowing democracy to take root.

Rules & Procedures

Cambridge University Press

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the democratic ascendency of the post-Soviet era is under severe challenge. While fragile democracies in Eastern Europe, Africa, and East Asia face renewed threats, the world has witnessed the failed democratic promises of the Arab Spring. What lessons can be drawn from these struggles? What conditions or institutions are needed to prevent the collapse of democracy? This book argues that the most significant antidote to authoritarianism is the presence of strong constitutional courts. Distinct in the third wave of democratization, these courts serve as a bulwark against vulnerability to external threats as well as internal consolidation of power. Particular attention is given to societies riven by deep divisions of race, religion, or national background, for which the courts have become pivotal actors in allowing democracy to take root.

The Law of Democracy offers a systematic exploration of the legal construction of American democracy. The book brings together a cluster of issues in law regulating the design of democratic institutions, and the book employs a variety of methods historical, comparative, theoretical, doctrinal to explore foundational questions in the theory and practice of democracy. Covered issues include the historical development of the individual right to vote; current struggles over racial gerrymandering; the relationship of the state to political parties; the constitutional and policy issues surrounding campaign-finance reform; and the tension between majority rule and fair representation of minorities in democratic bodies.

Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (University Casebook Series)

Karlan, Pamela S.

Pildes, Richard H.

Constitutional Law

Foundation Pr

2001 Supplement to Law of Democracy

Karlan, Pamela

Pildes, Richard

Law of Democracy

When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000 contains four chapters. Chapters 1 and 3 explore the substantive boundary line between the kinds of interests in the election processes that the law treats as implicating federal constitutional (and statutory) issues, versus the kinds of interests the law treats as implicating only state interests. Given that every dispute over matter of voting could be considered a dispute over "voting rights," when does the pre-Bush v. Gore law treat a voting issue, in either state or federal elections, as rising to a level that implicates federal interests. Chapter 2 addresses the complex interplay between federal and state courts in resolving voting-rights claims. Chapter 4 explores the range of remedial possibilities courts have accepted in various contexts: ordering new elections; enjoining upcoming elections; statistical adjustments to vote totals - including the wonderfully named case of In Re the Purported Election of Bill Durkin; permanently enjoining a particular election practice - centered on a federal court case finding that punch-card balloting systems violate Sec. 2 of the Voting Rights Act; individual damages remedies; and criminal prosecutions. The materials narrate the legal events in Florida and include the two United States Supreme Court decisions in Bush v. Gore, the central Florida Supreme Court and lower court decisions, and the Eleventh Circuit litigation.

When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000

Administrative Law

Using the presidential election of 2000 as a springboard for discussion, this treatise offers a comprehensive legal perspective on how disputed state and federal elections are resolved. Crucial judicial decisions and legal materials from this disputed election are examined against a broader historical, doctrinal, and analytical context.

When Elections Go Bad, The Law Of Democracy And The Presidential Election Of 2000, Revised (University Casebook Series)

Foundation Press

Offers a systematic exploration of the legal construction of American democracy. The book brings together a cluster of issues in law regulating the design of democratic institution. Employing historical, comparative, theoretical and doctrinal methods, the book explores foundational questions in the theory and practice of democracy.

The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (University Casebook Series)

2004 Supplement to the Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process, Revised Second Edition

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Issacharoff, Samuel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Issacharoff, Samuel

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Issacharoff, Samuel. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Democracy Unmoored: Populism and the Corruption of Popular Sovereignty

Fragile Democracies: Contested Power in the Era of Constitutional Courts (Cambridge Studies in Election Law and Democracy)

Fragile Democracies: Contested Power in the Era of Constitutional Courts (Cambridge Studies in Election Law and Democracy)

Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (University Casebook Series)

2001 Supplement to Law of Democracy

Law of Democracy

When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000

When Elections Go Bad, The Law Of Democracy And The Presidential Election Of 2000, Revised (University Casebook Series)

The Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process (University Casebook Series)

2004 Supplement to the Law of Democracy: Legal Structure of the Political Process, Revised Second Edition