Death by a Thousand Cuts : : Neuropolitics, Thymos, and the Slow Demise of Democracy / / Matt Qvortrup.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus DeG Package 2024 Part 1
• VerfasserIn: Qvortrup, Matt,
• Place / Publishing House: Berlin ;, Boston : : De Gruyter, , [2023]; ©2024
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 2nd ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Democracy in Times of Upheaval , 1
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XVIII, 174 p.)

In this new edition of Matt Qvortrup’s acclaimed book, the author shows how neuroscience can help us understand why people willingly give up their democratic rights or are unwillingly forced to do so.According to Plato, democracies die when people get angry. Resentment causes them to vote for demagogues. Recently, democratically elected politicians have used crises as a pretext for dismantling democracy, following a pattern we have seen since the dawn of civilization. Why do people fall for the lure of dictatorships? And what can we learn from the cause and effects of dictatorships to understand why democracies die?Death by a Thousand Cuts: Neuropolitics, Thymos, and the Slow Demise of Democracy is written in an accessible style with vignettes and new empirical data to provide historical context and neurological evidence on a much-discussed topic: the threat of democracy. This book will help readers who are concerned about the longevity of democracy understand when and why democracy is in danger of collapsing and alert them to the warning signs of its demise.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- About the Author and Series Editor -- Foreword to the Second Edition -- Foreword to the First Edition -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1: The Theories of Democratic Breakdown -- Chapter 2: Thymos and Amygdala: Neuropsychology and the Lure of Demagogues -- Chapter 3: Dictators 1919– 1945 -- Chapter 4: Dictators During the Cold War -- Chapter 5: Dictatorships and Demagogues after the Fall of the Berlin Wall -- Chapter 6: How Demagogues Get Elected – and Abuse Democracy -- Chapter Seven: The Courts, the Press, and the Dictators -- Chapter 8: What is the Track-Record of Autocratic Regimes? -- Concluding Postscript -- Epilogue to the Second Edition -- Epilogue to the first edition -- Notes -- Index