Rethinking Democracy

The world is in crisis. Wars erupt, inequality is widening, climate breakdown accelerates. Polarization deepens, and populists feed on it. The world has changed. The old model of democracy isn’t working any more.

This book argues that good societies always build on empowering individuals. Postwar democracy did so based on shared identities and limited interdependence. A new model of democracy must embrace our new individualized and interconnected world. Rethinking Democracy reinvents it that way.

Hanno Scholtz’s Civil Democracy concept shifts the focus from elite competition to empowering citizens as decision-makers. It offers a bold new vision and strategy for globally rebuilding democracy for the 21^st century.

• Provides a comprehensive and innovative framework
• Analyses pressing current political phenomena, such as polarization and populism
• Grounded in institutionalist theory

Hanno Scholtz, PD Dr. rer. pol., is a political scientist and sociologist teaching at the Universities of Zurich and Fribourg (CH). His work on the interaction of societies and their institutions ranges from vote-splitting over democratization to the contemporary polycrisis.

"This book prehends the current polycrisis in world historical perspective. It redesigns institutions to provide democratic efficacy by facilitating individual participation in a federated network of decision-making and sees an opportunity to implement a global democracy based on global citizenship. All hands on board for the struggle."

Christopher Chase-Dunn, Prof. Ph.D., University of California at Riverside, founding editor of the Journal of World-Systems Research

"A bold, brilliant blueprint for saving and improving democracy. Scholtz blends history, theory, and innovation into an urgent call—returning power to the people to rebuild freedom, unity, and resilience for a new era."

Dora Bender, Executive Director, Democracy & Federalism Hub