Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Law
Episode: Jan-Werner Müller, "Democracy Rules" (FSG, 2021)
Description: Everyone knows that democracy is in trouble, but do we know what democracy actually is? Jan-Werner Müller, author of the widely translated and acclaimed What Is Populism?, takes us back to basics in Democracy Rules (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021). In this short, elegant volume, he explains how democracy is founded not just on liberty and equality, but also on uncertainty. The latter will sound unattractive at a time when the pandemic has created unbearable uncertainty for so many. But it is crucial for ensuring democracy's dynamic and creative character, which remains one of its signal advantages over authoritarian alternatives that...