Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition and American Complacency

Democracy is withering around the globe, including in the White House, according to this overwrought jeremiad. Diamond (The Spirit of Democracy), a Stanford political scientist and Hoover Institution fellow, lays out his worries about trends in fragile democracies, including right-wing populism in Eastern Europe, creeping authoritarianism in Turkey, corruption in Angola, and declining political civility, moderation, and tolerance everywhere. His emphasis, though, is on Russia’s manipulation of social media to sway foreign elections, China’s influencing of other countries through investments and charitable gifts, and President Trump, whose “mental and moral unfitness,” “lack of impulse control,” and “overflowing vengeance” constitute an “unprecedented” menace to democracy. Diamond’s case against these three culprits is exaggerated and weakly argued. His agenda for reform includes international initiatives to support pro-democracy activists and journalists, nonpartisan redistricting, and censorship by social media platforms to counteract “their radical democratizing of information,” which he paradoxically terms “a threat to democracy” because it “remov[es] editorial filters and standards, thus enabling anyone, anywhere to act as a journalist.” Diamond’s scattershot analysis of democracy’s discontents is marred by alarmism; readers who don’t share his views already will likely not be swayed. [em]Agent: Scott Mendel, Mendel Media Group. (June) [/em]