{"product_id":"9780241517628","title":"Why Politics Fails : The Five Traps of the Modern World \u0026 How to Escape Them by Ben Ansell","description":"Brilliant ... a must-read' Daron Acemoglu, co-author of Why Nations Fail_____Why do the revolving doors of power always leave us disappointed? In Why Politics Fails, award-winning Oxford professor Ben Ansell shows that it's not the politicians that are the problem, it's that our collective goals result in five political 'traps'.   Democracy: we all want a say in how we're governed, but it's impossible to have any true 'will of the people'. Equality: we want to be treated equally, but equal rights and equal outcomes undermine each other. Solidarity: we want a safety net when times are tough, but often we care about solidarity only when we need it ourselves. Security: we want protecting from harm, but not if it undermines our freedoms. Prosperity: we want to be richer tomorrow, but what makes us richer in the short run makes us poorer over the long haul.   You've probably noticed a pattern here, which is that our self-interest undermines our ability to deliver on our collective goals. And these traps reinforce one another, so a polarized democracy can worsen inequality; a threadbare social safety net can worsen crime; runaway climate change will threaten global peace.   Drawing on examples from Ancient Greece through Brexit and using his own counterintuitive and pathbreaking research - on why democracy thrives under high inequality, and how increased political and social equality can lead to greater class inequality - Ansell vividly illustrates how we can escape the political traps of our imperfect world. He shows that politics won't end, but that it doesn't have to fail.   _____'A meticulous study of how different societies find it so difficult to achieve widely shared goals' Financial Times'Incisive and gripping' Daniel Ziblatt, co-author of How Democracies Die'Salutary reading for the world we live in now' James A. Robinson, co-author of Why Nations Fail\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Hardback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43128949473458,"sku":"9780241517628","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/products\/9780241517628.jpg?v=1687434113","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/9780241517628","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}