'Like a Socratic wasp, John Keane's innovative book shows us how to look at democracy from a space–time perspective that detects multiple variations of the political form known as democracy and the cultures and traditions in which it takes root. The age we are in today entails that the power of the will (elections and deliberation) is no longer master in the field, while the negative power of judgment expands. The Internet facilitates this, with the paradox of enlarging citizens' indirect influence instead of direct participation. It is thus the meaning of participation that changes and makes contemporary democracy radically different from the ancient one, not merely in the institutions but above all the value of political autonomy. It seems that the age of monitory democracy is one of power dispersion and depersonalization in the fullest - a liberal age.' Nadia Urbinati, Kyriakos Tsakopoulos Professor of Political Theory, Columbia University, New York
Introduction; Part I. Indigenisation: 1. Asia's orphan: democracy in Taiwan, 1895–2000; 2. Indigenous peoples; Part II. Communications Revolution: 3. Monitory democracy 4. Wild thinking; 5. Lying, truth and power; 6. Silence, early warnings and catastrophes; Part III. Re-Imagining Equality: 7. Capitalism and civil society; 8. The greening of democracy; 9. Child citizens; Part IV. Democracy beyond Borders?: 10. Quantum metaphors; 11. The European citizen; 12. Antarctica: democracy at the end of the world; Part V. Violence, Fear, War: 13. Does democracy have a violent heart?; 14. The triangle of fear; Part VI. Why Monitory Democracy?: 15. Is democracy a universal ideal?